The men and women who sit around this desk form one of the many call centres of ChildLine, the tele-helpline for children in distress. Working out of various centres all over Mumbai, these dedicated people are part of a vast network that aims to help children all over India.
We have a large number of people involved in helping to rescue children. From child welfare organisations to shelters, courts, the police and other NGOs, it is a vast system of people, says Shinson Mathew, centre co-ordinator and a member of Hamara Foundation, the NGO that has tied up with ChildLine at Nair Hospital.
ChildLine was in the news through most of last week as two Britons accused of paedophilia were acquitted by the Bombay High Court for want of evidence. ChildLine’s volunteers had tracked the case from the beginning, and were dismayed at the judgment.
That setback notwithstanding, at the centres where volunteers respond to children in distress who call 1098, its work as usual.
While there are no hard and fast rules, trainees who man the controls are usually those who have passed their Std X or XII, and are paid Rs 2,200 per month. Trained to handle cases on the telephone, they have to be fully aware of child rights, organisations that help children and laws regarding juvenile justice. I found out about this through a friend and joined because I really love kids, says para-provisional Suchna Padnekar, who is Mathews right hand when it comes to administrative and official work.
The calls that come through are monitored carefully and every detail including the name of the caller, the trainee on duty, and the reason behind the call are noted in a call register. Mathew points out that the entries include blank calls, wrong numbers, crank calls and even people who call and then hang up.
When the centre receives a call, a calm voice picks up at the other end and explains patiently that you have reached the child helpline and asks you to explain your problem. In an emergency, the centre ties up with the police and other agencies and proceeds to rescue the child in question, who has to be reached within the hour.
We have children who call up just to chat with a particular trainee and some even ask for a certain person because they recognise their voices, says Mathew. Sometimes when Im walking in the station or on the roads and the kids call out to me when they spot me, says trainee Reshmi Magdum, who is doing her B Com along with her job as a trainee at the centre. A relative told me about this organisation when there was a vacancy, and so I joined here and I really enjoy it, adds Sulbha Ghodke, a trainee who joined recently.
While the centre receives around 80 to 100 calls every day, there are a few calls from anxious students who believe they haven’t studied enough for an exam. Callers like these are given appropriate guidance and are asked to call counselling centres.
Now I bring other kids in from the railway station when they are sick or need help, says Vicky, who is a regular helper at the centre along with volunteer Vandhana Pardeshi, who grew up at the Adolescent Girls Development Centre.
While there are helplines that offer tele-counselling around the world, India has a unique outreach-based model, says Nishit Kumar, head of Awareness and Advocacy for ChildLine, which is in fact a founder member of the Child Helplines International, which now has over 129 members.
The centre’s popularity among street kids is evident from a single visit. Two runaway street children from Delhi walk in. Umesh has been brought into the centre by his slightly older friend. Pet mein dard tha, toh usko yahaan leke aaya, he says, before going off to wait for a plate of dal and rice that Mathew has ordered for them both.