How a pendant with a QR code helped an intellectually challenged boy reunite with his parents

According to police officials, the child was found at around 8.20pm by a BEST bus conductor. “We got a call informing us that a boy, who is not with a guardian, is found near Dr. Shama Prasad Mukherjee chowk, following which a team was sent and the child was taken to our police station,” an officer from Colaba police station said.

Police sub-inspector Parmeshwar Godse, police constable Rahul Nemiste and Deepak Deshmukh made the boy feel comfortable at the police station as they tried to get details about his parents and address from him. “The boy did not utter a word. He would just look at us and smile,” said Godse.

On seeing that he may have been afflicted with some disability, police officials started to check his pocket and anything on him that could help them with a clue to locate his family. “Nemiste suddenly saw a pendant which the boy was wearing around his neck. Initially we did not think that the pedant could help us locate his parents. However when we removed and opened the pendant, we found a QR code printed on a piece of paper,” said an officer.

Police officials scanned the code and got details of an NGO named “projectchetna.in”. “We then reached out to a phone number where we were directed to enter login details along with a password. We then got the boy’s name, address and other details about his family members,” added Godse. “It also had the boy’s parents’ number.”

The Colaba police then reached out to his family, who informed them that the 12-year-old boy had gone out to play at around 3pm and did not return. And after the boy went missing, the parents looked for him for a few hours following which they reported him missing at Worli police station.

“After we informed them, their parents immediately came to Colaba and he was handed over to them around 11pm,” the police said.

When asked about the pendant, Akshay Ridlan the founder of projectchetna.in said, “We run a registered NGO and we get in touch with schools that provide education to specially-abled children and provide such pendants. As we have seen in this case, the pendants help locate parents of lost children because these specially-abled kids are unable to provide details about their family.”

The NGO, which started in September 2023, has so far distributed over 5,500 pendants to specially-abled and elderly people.