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CHILDLINE is a national, 24-hour; free emergency phone & outreach service for children in need of care and protection. Apart from crisis intervention, CHILDLINE also links children to long-term development. Any child / concerned adult can call 1098 free of cost and avail of the service at any time of the day or night. CHILDLINE aims to create a child protection network to reach out to every child. CHILDLINE service is supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.
Activities of CHILDLINE:
When a child (or a concerned adult) dials 1098, Centralised Contact Centre (CCC) at Chennai receives the call. The caller asks for help and the information is passed immediately to the concerned District and the CHILDLINE staffs either responds to the call himself/herself or CHILDLINE reaches out to the children in need of care and protection. These include: street children, missing children, child labourers, abused children, differently abled children, child addicts, children in conflict with the law, children in institutions, mentally ill children, children infected by HIV/AIDS, child beggary, children whose families are in crises and so on. As a part of crisis intervention CHILDLINE Kollam has intervened in more than 816 CNCP cases during the year.
CHILDLINE Staff reaches out to the children who cannot access 1098 and spread CHILDLINE message across to public and children. CHILDLINE reached out to children through visiting schools, Anganawadies, adolescent group, tribal areas, slums, nomadic dwellings and street pockets, coastal areas, remote areas, etc.
Awareness is provided to other stakeholders in the community to sensitize them on child rights, child protection issues and help build a child friendly society. CHILDLINE team conducted awareness programmes to police personnel, teachers, ICDS staff, Self Help Groups, Colony dwellers, students, resident associations, public, fisher folk community, etc.
Open House is a tool for child participation and is used to bring out the issues of children in a particular locality/ school/ home and acts as a feedback mechanism for CHILDLINE service. Children involved in the open house get awareness on child rights; raise issues faced by them, and seek solutions through the participation of allied system personnel.
CHILDLINE SE DHOSTI (CSD) is a weeklong national campaign aimed at sensitizing the general public on CHILDLINE 1098 and make friends of CHILDLINE. The campaign involves range of events, activities across the country. Usually the CSD programs are being conducted in connection with Children’s Day on November 14 and observes it with vigour across Kerala.