Indian Police Deploys Facial Recognition App To Help Lost Children And Families Reunite

A new facial recognition app, which according to campaigners, was a game-changer, has been used by the Indian police to help missing children and their families reunite.

Every year in the country, there are around tens of thousands of children who go missing. Among them, some are trafficked to illegally work in factories, handicrafts, eateries, brick kilns, handicraft industries, or even worse brothels and begging.

As part of Operation Smile, the Southern state of Telangana police developed a facial recognition tool to find missing children and tackle child labor.

On the app, they scan through over 3,000 records and helped more than half of the children reunite with their families. The campaign’s supervisor, senior officer Swathi Lakra, said that the results look promising.

Before the app was developed, not knowing what to do with the children after rescuing them had been a big challenge. Putting them in shelter homes wasn’t the ideal solution.

In a country with 1.3 billion people, helping children to reunite with their families is a challenging task. Moreover, police officers also have difficulties with the process due to poor coordination between states and a lack of training.

The app makes use of a centralized database filled with photographs. According to the police, the app is capable of identifying a human face with up to 80 points to find a match. As a result, it will be easier for the police to search for the individual even if they only have old photographs.

The app is updated regularly with the data from shelters where rescued children are staying.

The use of facial recognition has sparked debate all around the world. Last year, the Delhi Police trialed the technology, saying it had helped them identify around 3,000 missing children in only a few days.

>>> Should India, Like The US, Ban The Use Of Facial Recognition?