Little voices dialing for help
Coordinators of 1098 have been trying to keep pace with calls related to abuse and violence against children for the last 1 month
CHENNAI: Continuing with the legacy of the Child Helpline (CHL) services, which aids and addresses the concerns faced by children in the State, the Tamil Nadu government took over CHL under its wing on July 31.
After the transition of CHL from Childline India Foundation (CIF) and partner NGOs to respective State governments, the 1098 service has been functioning under the Child Protection Services (CPS) of each district of the particular government.
As per the data from the Directorate of Social Defence (DSD), from 7 pm of July 31 till 3 pm of August 30, the TN District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) under DSD received 22,805 calls in the span of 32 days.
Out of this, the total intervention calls were 2,743 and non-intervention calls were 20,062.
So far, the helpline service was functioning under CIF and NGOs, the Ministry of Child and Women Empowerment early this year decided to transition CHL to all State governments. It issued a two months’ notice to CIF for transitioning and handing over the helpline services under Mission Vatsalya scheme to all States and Union Territories (UT).
During this transition period, all States and UTs were allowed to operate CHL 1098 with existing staff and the same to continue for a few months, post-transition. All governments were directed to equip Women and Child Development (WCD) control rooms and CHL units with required manpower as per the CHL’s standard operating procedure.
To both keep track of setting up offices and finish the transitioning process within the deadline, States/UTs were required to provide all information such as site address for WCD control rooms, and site addresses for CHL at DCPUs. Directing at CIF, the ministry instructed for all legacy data sets to C-DAC and take action for closure of concerned regional resource centres (RCCs) and concerned centralised call centres (CCCs) within the given time.
Speaking to DT Next, a higher official with DSD, said, “During the notice period, we began setting up offices at both State and district-levels for attending calls from July 31. We have streamlined the calls as effectively as possible since the takeover.”
In the intervention calls of 2,743, the highest has been recorded in major cities such as Chennai with 186 calls, followed by Salem with 151 and Coimbatore with 133.
Under the categories of calls, the highest number of 773 cases has been reported under child abuse – 304 on physical abuse, 205 on emotional/mental abuse and 185 on sexual abuses). Within 32 days, CHL received calls on 500 child marriage cases and 287 child missing cases.
A District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) of one of the northern districts of Tamil Nadu said, “During the notice period, helpline offices were set up in all districts. So far, 32 districts have been taking calls from their respective district office. However, the rest of the calls have been routed through Chennai.”
And, an official in one of the Western district piped in: “In six districts, calls are attended by DCPU staff as helpline operators are soon expected to come on board.”
A CHL coordinator the in a northern district explained, “Calls on child marriage are acted on promptly, considering the urgency of the case. And, other kinds of calls are given at most attention so that none of the cases are missed.”
Responding to high number of calls on abuse and child marriage, a Madurai-based activist said, “Reported cases are always better than those that go unreported. Though the numbers are high, we need to work on addressing the root causes of these complaints while simultaneously encouraging children to use 1098 in case of untoward incidents.”
Why ‘silent calls’ are most difficult to attend ?
While the Child Helpline (CHL) service receives different kinds of calls throughout the day, officials tell this reporter that most challenging calls to attend are the ‘silent calls’.
A CHL coordinator explaining ‘silent calls’ said, “Children dial 1098 and get nervous about opening up or registering a complaint at the beginning of the call. In those cases, the helpline staff attending the call is trained to remain patient, and give assurances to the child that CHL is a safe space and the identity at all cost will be hidden.”
Besides this, the staff attending helpline calls are directed to not hang up, or call back if the call is disconnected.
“The goal is to encourage the victim/child to speak up and create an environment for her/him to open up. So, the staff do not disconnect any call, but patiently hold on till they speak up,” added another coordinator.
One of the main reasons for the CHL to not return the phone-call if the caller disconnects it, according to officials, is because of the possibility of the victims/children calling from the perpetrator’s phone.
