CHILDLINE 1098, in 21 days, has responded to a total of 4.6 lakh calls and the majority of the calls were received during the lockdown period.
According to the latest government data, CHILDLINE 1098 from March 20 to April 10 received a total of 4,60,000.
The 24*7 helpline across 571 districts for children in distress, in a statement, said that around 30 per cent of the calls were from the northern region.
“The north was followed by the western region with 29 per cent of call, the southern region with 21 per cent and eastern region with 20 per cent calls,” the statement added.
“These calls include calls for information, active intervention, prank/crank calls, or even silent calls where the confidence building of the caller is undertaken,” the statement further added.
The helpline is providing information about COVID-19 prevention as well as referring to the relief services through district-level linkages,” it stated.
Informing further, the statement said, “A total of 9,385 interventions were also taken up on the ground by our frontline workers during this period.”
Adding further, the statement said, “30 per cent of among these cases were related to the pandemic situation, with 91 per cent requesting for food, and 6 per cent requesting for medical assistance. The remaining calls were regarding transportation help.”
The statement further added that of the 9,385 interventions, emergency interventions for child protection aspects accounted for 20 per cent and this included preventing child marriage, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking, abandonment, neglect, and child labour.
“Of all the calls, around 9 per cent were related to health aspects, while missing children and education-related issues accounted for 5 per cent each,” the statement further said.