Police personnel are known for being tough. But policemen in Madhya Pradesh are showing their humane side and donning a new role -they are saving newborns abandoned by their parents.

Besides the routine task of maintaining law and order and checking crime, they are also rescuing abandoned children and giving them a new lease of life.

As many as 402 newborns, mostly girls, were found abandoned at various places in the state in since the past two years. They were taken to hospitals in time by personnel of 'Dial-100', an emergency service of the Madhya Pradesh Police introduced to help people in distress, an official said.

The abandoned infants are shifted to hospitals for immediate medical care in first response vehicles (FRVs) which are part of the emergency service.

While sharing the data of rescued children, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Dial-100 Service, Hemant Sharma told PTI, "In one such incident, a FRV rescued a newborn on Friday from Guhiadol village in Sidhi district." He said

"The control room got a phone call at 8 pm and a FRV swung into action to take the infant to the district hospital."

"The cops posted in Dial-100 service of the Madhya Pradesh Police have rescued 402 abandoned infants and taken them to hospitals between December 2016 and May 2018," he

said. He added that baby girls were rescued more often but there was record this data gender-wise.

Additional Director General (ADG), Police Telecom, Upendra Jain, who heads the service, said people have come to trust the initiative.

"Dial-100 is an emergency service that helps people facing harassment, eve-teasing in

public places, which need prompt police intervention. People are also approaching this service in case they find an abandoned infant," he said.

Bhopal district reported the maximum number of abandoned children at 18, followed by Indore and tribal dominated Chhindwara.

Madhya Pradesh is among the states with a skewed child sex ratio, though situation has been improved in the past three decades. Child sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0-6 years.

Child rights activist Rakesh Malviya said, "According to available records, barely 50 cases of foeticide were registered in the country in 2014. In Madhya Pradesh, this number stood at 15."

PTI