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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fewer PCOs lead to sharp drop in child helpline calls -Namita Devidayal

Fewer PCOs lead to sharp drop in child helpline calls -Namita Devidayal

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published Published on Sep 8, 2013   modified Modified on Sep 8, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: For the longest time, most calls that came to Childline would be from a kid on a railway platform asking for help after a brutal police beating or desperately looking for shelter. But the decline of public call offices (PCOs) across the country have led to a sharp drop in calls from marginalized children to India's first toll-free helpline for children in distress. The decline in PCOs is due to the proliferation of mobile phones, which are not available to these children.

The number of PCOs across India have come down from 22 lakh in 2008 to 10 lakh in 2012, making the once-ubiquitous public phone booth into an object valued more for its quaintness than utility. However, for a vast section of children, that one rupee call could potentially transform despair into hope.

Childline, a government-funded body, has been fielding calls at all times of day and night since 1996, from children who live in streets, slums, or railway stations, reporting any thing from abuse, illness, or the absence of the most basic things like food and shelter.

Nishit Kumar of Childline says, "These children need access to a phone more than any one else. If a runaway child calls from a bus depot calls saying he doesn't know where to go, and you manage to reach him, you are actually putting him out of harm's way. The window of opportunity to rescue a girl-child who has just arrived at a railway or bus station is about ten minutes. After that, its over."

While in 2009, 10% of all distress calls came from PCOs, in 2012 the number had fallen to 1%. Meanwhile, calls from landlines in middle-class homes has been going up. Social workers question the validity of a service that addresses a child calling and saying, 'I don't want to go to school because I don't like my maths teacher' versus the needs of a severely marginalized orphan who doesn't have even basics like food, shelter and medical help in place. "While the former is also important, this cannot be ignored," says Kumar.

"These children do the crucial service of calling for help when other children are in distress. So, if we take over phones, they would not be able to tell us what's happening," he added.

The solution to the problem is to instal dial-free phones (the childline hotline number is 1098) in different public spaces. These instruments would have no dialing facility, thereby preventing misuse. Childline, and its parent body, the ministry of women and child development, have made repeated requests to the railway board to give them five square feet of space on the walls of station platforms, but there has been no response.

The railways is by far the largest transporter of children who are either trafficked or are runaways and access from stations to a helpline is critical. Ironically, India was the first country in the world to ratify the United Nations Conventin on the Rights of the Child which, among other things, prescribes that children have a right to access help. A helpline is the first and most basic conduit towards child protection.

The solution to the problem is to instal dial-free phones (the childline hotline number is 1098) in different public spaces. These instruments would have no dialing facility, thereby preventing misuse.


The Times of India, 8 September, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fewer-PCOs-lead-to-sharp-drop-in-child-helpline-calls/articleshow/22408171.cms


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