The move to transfer CHILDLINE to emergency number 112 is without rationale and requires a rethink

With the government publishing draft guidelines for CHILDLINE under the Mission Vatsalya Yojana for child protection services, the ongoing tussle between the government and the civil society stakeholders of CHILDLINE has not reached any resolution yet. After the merger, the helpline will be “integrated” with the Home Ministry’s universal emergency helpline number 112.

Moksha, who works as a child helpline staffer in Vadodara, Gujarat, says: “A lot of times kids do not want to tell their problems to even their parents as they may be scared of their reaction.” According to her, the staff’s continuous on ground efforts as well as their empathetic behaviour to pursue the children in relation to their problems, or in crisis situations, makes the children trust the staff eventually.

“We try to create a safe environment for the children so that they are not scared. We go on the ground and make them understand that they will receive help if they call on 1098 and that no one will judge or blame them,” she said.

Worried that the police attending the child helpline calls, after it comes under MHA, may not be able to handle the cases with the “sensitivity” that the Non-Profit Organisations (NGOs), social activists and counsellors currently do. Will the police invest this much time, she asks.

The first 24-hour telephonic child helpline service, accessible to anyone calling on 1098, was started in June 1996 by Jeroo Billimoria, a former professor of TISS Mumbai and founder of several international NGOs. It was started as a field action project under the Department of Family and Child, TISS.

By the year 2000, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had agreed to fund the project at the national level and committed that by 2002, it would be available in every Indian city.

CHILDLINE was, hence established, under which the workers identified and provided support service at various locations. It served like a link between the Ministry and the NGOs working in the related fields of child rights.

According to Childline India Foundation, as of 2021, CHILDLINE services are available across 602 cities and districts, covering almost 81 per cent of the Indian landscape. The network has 1080 partner organisations and 153 Child Help Desk. CHILDLINE operates from centralised call centres at six places -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

“As soon as a call is received on the network, the case is forwarded to the field partner who is operating in the nearest area,” said Moksha. “The team partner then rushes to the child and makes sure that the child is safe,” she added.

Draft guidelines for Mission Vatsalaya published in April this year states, “The Mission Vatsalya in partnership with States and Districts will implement a 24x7 helpline service for children as defined under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 and amended in 2021.” The child helpline will operate with improved coordination of State and District functionaries and will be integrated with 112 helpline of MHA.

The government argued that the child helpline was being merged with the Emergency helpline so that the police personnel were the first interface of the calls made on 1098, instead of social workers.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Women and Child Development asserted that this was being done to make sure that states have interfaces for children complaints as well as “data sensitivity”.However, many civil society members and child rights activists have been repeatedly questioning the rationale behind the move even when the current child helpline number 1098 is working successfully.

Brinda Adige, a Bengaluru- based activist and Director of Global Concerns India, said: “This merger is unacceptable, because the people who will be handling the helpline will neither be equipped nor trained to handle these calls.”

Moksha and Brinda both claim that the calls received on the child helpline number are of various nature. “They can range from a child or their parents calling just to seek information, or someone who is calling to file a complaint,” says Adige.

According to Moksha, the extent of calls can be from “social to economic in nature, where the parents had even asked to take care of their children as they could not afford to do so during the pandemic.”

A statement published by ‘The Concerned for Working Children (CWC)’ said: “Many calls are from children who are in mental distress and require immediate or long-term support and counselling.” According to them there are also requests for food, books, shelter, etc.

“These calls require experts who understand children and their psychology and are trained to protect and guide the children”.

Children make silent calls when they are deeply distressed and the Childline personnel wait until the child opens up. According to the statement, the children ask, “Will Police be ready to do it?” “The police are therefore not at all an appropriate first point of contact for receiving these calls,” concluded the statement.

Adige argues: “The Karnataka government has appointed people who are handling the 121-helpline number at police stations in Bangalore (Makkala Sahayavani Helpline).

They are not able to provide any type of immediate counselling.” For example, she adds, “If a woman, locked outside her house along with her children by her husband, has dialled the helpline number, I would first ask her of her exact location, then inquire if she has money to reach a safe place. Arrangements would then be made accordingly.”

In addition to these factors, statement by the CWC pointed out that when the children complained against sexual abusers or drug peddlers to the police, they “have exhibited bias and discriminated in favour of the abuser or even taken bribes.” Thus, the presence of police increases “ostracism” against the children, claimed the statement.

“There could be cases of child sexual abuse and the child would not want to talk to authorities. Even if they talk, suggestions like ‘could your father really do this’ or ‘do you really want to make this complaint’ could be made,” said Brinda Adige.

According to her, she would ask the child to meet with the mother or if the child is comfortable with the father because the abuser is his/her mother’s brother, then that will be done. Meanwhile, I would also call a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with a trauma crisis centre, and ask to provide the child with a counsellor.”

Moreover, talking about the rationale of data sensitivity given by the government, the statement added “we are sure that MWCD follows similar protocols for preserving the data sensitivity as the Government and hence instead of shifting this work to MHA, the required measures for strengthening should be done while retaining it within MWCD itself.”

Talking about the same rationale, Adige adds: “There is no guarantee that the calls being received as well as recorded will follow a confidentiality clause. Children and their family’s identities can be exposed to threats, their numbers can be traced.”

(The Author is a winner of the WNCB Awards for Untold Stories on child labour: Charkha Features)