More kids turning to 1098 for help

Over 20 lakh calls made by children in the last year

NEW DELHI: Tired of his mother constantly slapping him and pulling his hair, nine-year-old Rohan Kumar (name changed) one evening gathered courage to call 1098 — the child helpline. Within an hour, a team of child rights activists and police reached Rohan’s house in a plush Delhi locality and his mother was on the receiving end for a change.

While police threatened Rohan’s mother with various IPC sections, the activists counselled the child and his mother for hours without letting her know Rohan had called them. It’s eight months now, Rohan’s mother hasn’t physically abused him. She has learnt more civil ways of disciplining him.

Many children like Rohan have started calling up the helpline to straighten up their parents and teachers. “Children from affluent families are also calling our helplines to narrate violence in their homes and schools. Our rescue teams hand over the custody of such children to other relatives with whom the child feels safe. But in general cases we do not prefer to pull them out of their homes. We counsel parents and teachers to give up violence,” said Lovleen Kacker, joint secretary in ministry of women and child development (WCD).

More than 20 lakh distress calls were made to the helpline from across the country in the last one year, says Childline India Foundation, the mother NGO for the helpline.

“These call are either from children themselves, or friends, relatives, neighbours and other informers,” said Kacker.

“Out of the total calls, about 40 per cent are blank which indicates the child is testing you with the problem and lacks confidence to share it with a stranger. Many children who have finally spoken about their problems have confessed to making at least four to five blank calls before. However, our call centre staff are well trained to sound reassuring and strong and quickly gain their confidence,” said an official from Childline India Foundation.

This helpline operates with 1000 people on the job round the clock. Supported by a huge network of NGOs in various cities, the rescue teams reach the destination in less than an hour.

Cases of caste-based discrimination and lack of toilets and water in schools are also being reported. The number of calls goes up substantially after a bomb blast, earthquake or tsunami with desperate children calling to discuss their unaddressed fears. The distress calls also increase during examinations when children find it difficult to cope with the stress. However, the largest number of calls are made by the underprivileged, lost, runaway, abandoned and child labour.
November 20 is Child Rights Day.