QR-coded tag to trace missing kids yields good results

 Vijayawada: In an initiative on the part of NTR district collector Dr G Lakshmisha, child-tags were introduced for the first time to trace the missing children during the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana event here.

The officials tied a QR code-enabled wrist band to all children below five years of age who visit Durga temple along with their parents. It helped the officials to trace about 10 missing children and hand them over to the parents safely. About 60 teams were deployed by the ICDS department at various locations including railway station or bus station and city entry points and above all at the queue lines on the task to spot each and every child and tie a QR-coded wrist band.

While tying the band, the details of the child and parents along with the mobile number of the parent were embedded into the QR code and stored in server. If the child was found missing out somewhere, anyone who noticed the child can scan the wrist tag to get their parents’ contact number and call them directly to hand over children to them.

The district collector said that about 12,000 children were tagged in the event. During the five days, about 10 children were traced and sent to their parents by the duty police.