E-Paper
2 child rescue acts in 3 months: New Childline slowly beginning to make an impression in UP
Three children rescued from beggary with the help of Childline rescue workers. The Childline helpline has faced coordination issues since being handed over to the UP Police Emergency 112.
Three children were rescued from beggary, the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of the UP police said adding that the task was undertaken with the assistance of Childline rescue workers.
It has been a while that any child has been rescued by AHTU-Childline combine.
Post rescue, these minors are now kept in the government shelter home for children under 10 years at the Prag Narayan Road, officials said. Over the last three months, there have been several complaints regarding lack of coordination and unavailability of workers on the helpline in Childline, after the handover of duties to the UP Police Emergency 112.
The Helpline is slowly beginning to function now with a new team as it once used to and in three months rescued three child beggars and six children involved in child labour, said Child help line case worker Brijendra Sharma.
“After the handover, things are slowly falling into place and will soon run as smoothly as before,” he said. “Although we have made two rescues since the revamp, we have consistently been fielding many calls,” he said. He admitted that callers not being able to reach the helpline continued to be a problem but added that the same would cease to be an issue soon.
Former Childline workers with considerable experience were supposed to get preference in the hiring process for the new Childline. However, they are still caught in court proceedings, trying to get rehired in the team.
The previous Childline team, that was quite active in Lucknow for over two decades, were involved in at least three to five rescue acts each month. These included rescuing missing children, those involved in child trafficking, child marriage, child abuse, abandoned children.
Over the past three months, shifting of duties to a different body by the current workers (formerly under Ministry for Women and Child Development), new recruits and working systems were believed to be the reasons that slowed down the Helpline and rescue efforts.
In many cases, callers to the helpline for children (1098) received a message that staffers were not available to take the call.
The new project coordinator for Childline, Jaya, said that she too had been made aware of this issue and suggested that anyone in need of assistance should keep dialing the helpline number till someone answers. There are 26 staff with the helpline at present.
