Child helpline no. to be changed: Centre wants to merge with national emergency helpline 112

Rachana Ramesh | NT
Bengaluru

India’s only dedicated helpline number for children, having the whole child rights sector relying on it to provide assistance, faces uncertainty as the government plans to merge it with national emergency helpline 112. At present, 1098 is the most accessible helpline to report any issue regarding children in distress. It is a 24x7 emergency, free phone outreach and is one of the world’s biggest emergency helpline services dedicated for children.

It is among the country’s largest emergency response systems with 50 lakh calls received annually. However, the recent draft guidelines for Mission Vatsalya scheme for child protection services said the Childline will be integrated with the universal emergency helpline 112 of the Ministry of Home Affairs which also provides assistance with services related to police, health and women’s safety.

The draft guidelines of the Ministry of Women and Child Development say the detailed Standard Operation Procedure on the guideline will be issued separately. However, last year, Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development, said the administrative control of Childline 1098 will be transferred from her Ministry to the Ministry of Home Affairs so that police personnel, and not social workers, answer the calls made to 1098.

Bengaluru operation

The helpline is operated by Childline Contact Centres (CCCs) in five locations – Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurgaon. The Bengaluru CCC is situated in Electronic city and relevant calls are routed from this 24/7 call centre to the collaborative or support NGOs and the police are informed if required. Support NGOs are organisations that have extensively worked in the field of child rights and are skilled in rescuing, rehabilitating and counselling children.

On receiving a call from the CCC, the support NGO initiates an action plan for fact-finding and intervention, and if the case calls for it, rescue operations too. They carry out collaborative work with various government departments including women and child welfare, labour, and the police. In the city, there are three organisations that work as support NGOs: Bengaluru Oniyavara Seva Coota (BOSCO), Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) and Sathi. The Child Rights Trust acts as the nodal agency for Childline in the city and focuses more on advocacy, awareness and training. “There is no clarity about the merging yet. The protocols are yet to be issued but we are of the opinion that the existing system must be strengthened. The Childline requires an immense amount of collaborative work and building of relationships which has taken place over the last 25 years.

We are working in the most child friendly manner right now, ” said Nagamani, nodal coordinator at Child Rights Trust, adding that they not only receive calls about critical cases but also cases relating to psychological issues, as mere as exam stress or as bad as parental abuse. “There is a certain way to handle children. We have an efficient system where we have employed temporary counsellors too, who provide immediate teleservices. If the issue is aggravated, they will be further referred. The police cannot handle such a complex system involving children,” she said. APSA has received 2,447 cases through the Childline in the past year, and on an average receive 10-15 calls in a day. It deals with all kinds of child rights issues, from trafficking to nutritional support.

Anjaneya, Childline coordinator said he had an interaction with the cops and came to learn that they are not ready for the job and are equally confused. “The special juvenile police alone cannot attend to all the needs. There have also been instances of violation of child rights with police. They are overburdened and their schedule of work inevitably makes them treat the children like adults,” he said. “When few cases go to them directly, they do not look at the child as a child. There are instances of beating, shouting and showing support to the accused,” he said, adding that their hands are full with law and order cases. Sathi exclusively works in railway premises and has an office at the Yeshwantpur railway station, which receives several trains from North India. Sathi has received two calls through Childline in the past month.

However, they have rescued 52 children in June alone through their outreach programs. Hunsa, a counsellor at Sathi said they receive at least 4-5 calls on a monthly basis. “If the trafficker figures out the public is taking an initiative to call the helpline, they flee the sight in a span of minutes making it hard for us to rescue the children. But there have been continued cases where efforts of the public have helped us nab the traffickers,” she adding, the well-integrated exist