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Helpline for children to be launched

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DQW Bureau
New Update

Cyber News Service


Lucknow

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After waiting for over one year, the state capital is ready to launch the Childline telephone service 1098 for assistance of Children in distress. 

According to official sources, initially the phone call receiving centre for the childline is being established at one of the protection homes of the women and child welfare department, though many capital-based voluntary organizations have offered their services for the same. These NGOs include 'Ankur' which has also been made the nodal agency to coordinate among all voluntary organisation. Sources said that two types of organisations would be involved in the service. The first one would be the collaborative agencies, which would receive the call.

Once the call is received at the children center, the collaborative agencies would alert the NGOs, which are referred as resource agencies in the area from where the child has made the call.

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These NGOs are supposed to provide all possible help to the children in need. Attention has been given to those who are specially working for street children. The list of resource agencies also includes the numbers of ambulance services, blood banks, various clinics, nursing homes, advocates, police stations and shelter homes where the children should be kept for temporary shelter. A permanent shelter is being developed by CIDRAP at the Charbagh rain

basera.

Not only a child himself, but even an adult wishing to help a child in distress, can utilize the facility available on non-metered telephone call no 1098. Primarily launched in Mumbai, the childline originated as a joint experimental project of the Department of Family Welfare and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

The aim of the helpline was to provide help to street urchins and child laborers working in unorganized sector who are often sexually abused by the powerful and also by their employers.

According to officials, the childline also focused at responding to children in emergency situations and referring them to governmental and non-governmental for protection and long-term follow up care.

The success of the project in Mumbai revealed that the project also strengthened the support system, which facilitated the rehabilitation of such children.

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