CHENNAI: Amid the surge in the number of calls to 1098, cases and follow-ups to handle by the workers of Child Helpline (CHL) on any given day – from child marriage, sexual violence and abandonment to bonded labour – the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) in January, sans proper research, had announced that CHL staff would be given additional duties.
While interacting with DT Next, stakeholders across India and TN alleged that such an announcement would pose a threat to diluting the emergency services.
Burdening the CHL staff with other department work will adversely impact the child rescue cases and follow-ups, stakeholders flag.
The Ministry had alleged that through the data available on the CHL dashboard and state visits, it was found that the CHL staff are underutilised except in the capital districts of respective states/Uts. An official with the MoWCD had stressed that CHL was an integral part of the Mission Vatsalya Scheme, which required staff to also work on State Child Protection Society (SCPS), State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) and District Child Protection Unit (DCPU).
Additionally, MoWCD had urged all states/UTs to prepare a calendar of tasks for CHL staff, clearly defining daily, weekly, and monthly roles and responsibilities.
But, such an announcement has raised eyebrows across existing staff, child rights activists and even officials. Experts also argue that 1098 CHL is gradually losing its ‘founding purpose’. Interestingly, most of it is lost in ineffective bureaucracy and flawed Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) framed by the Ministry, they say.
Over 20 years ago, CHL began its operation to support and assist any child who has fallen out of the safety net to provide emergency and immediate response and connect the child to existing long-term services. For children with different needs, who call anytime, anywhere, and for anything, CHL acts as a one-point contact which facilitates instant access to support, advice and active intervention, and this shall be available round the clock and provide outreach service for children in crisis, linking them to emergency and long-term care and rehabilitation services within 30 minutes.
The announcement from the Ministry has created a misunderstanding of the very nature of emergency rescue services, said a CHL field staff in the TN north district. “We receive multiple cases per day. We’re already burdened with new and existing cases. Additionally, there are follow-ups to do in many cases. For instance, safely sending the child rescued from bonded labour to the homes. For the salaries we receive, anywhere between Rs 18,000 to Rs 28,000, we’re already grossly underpaid,” lamented a city-based CHL staff.
A Devanayan, a child rights activist in Chennai, wanted to know if the government would remove/divert 108 ambulance and fire and rescue service staff if there were not enough cases to keep the employees busy? “Emergency services are deployed to serve a purpose, including CHL 1098. Overloading them with other department duties, without addressing the pay gap, allowance and wellness, will have a deep impact on the service over time,” he opined.
Subsequently, Virgil D Sami, executive director of Arunodhaya Foundation, centre for street and working children in North Chennai, said that this was one of the feared reasons when, in 2023, the Union government took over the 1098 operations from the Childline India Foundation (CIF) and partner NGOs. “Considering the nature of the service, the CHL staff being used for other works will dilute the very essence of the helpline. With the huge call traffic, more paperwork and uploading to be done on the cases, involving CHL staff for other works will cause delays in time-bound intervention,” she added.
Interestingly, similar concerns have also been voiced out by many former Childliners across India from states such as Delhi, Nagaland and West Bengal who felt the goal of establishing CHL was gradually being eroded since the takeover by the Union government.