Government helpline for women answering more calls now: DCW

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government women’s helpline 181 answered over 200,000 calls since its charge was handed over to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) six months

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government women’s helpline 181 answered over 200,000 calls since its charge was handed over to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) six months ago.

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This is 50,000 more calls than what it answered during the same period last year when it was run by a government-appointed NGO, an official claimed.

“The total number of answered calls on the helpline in the past six months since its takeover by DCW is 2,14,772. The helpline had received 1,60000 calls during the same period of time last year,” said DCW officials.

Many calls were being missed because they didn’t have enough people to handle the calls when it took over, DCW officials said.

“There were 14 operators when DCW took over. A huge number of calls were being missed at the time … the number of callers has been increased to 28. This has led to the missed calls dropping immensely,” officials said.

The previous government under Sheila Dikshit launched the helpline after the December 16 gang rape. The AAP government handed the DCW the helpline’s responsibility.

Officials said a huge percentage of calls received are related to cases of domestic violence. “Calls are regularly for obscene calls, sexual assault, dowry violence, child sexual assault, health related concerns and stalking,” said officials.

Trained operators listen to the complainants and counsel them. “Based on the urgency and requirements explained by the caller, police and DCW Mahila Help Line (MHL) counsellors are sent,” officials said.