A child – friendly nation that guarantees the rights and protection of all children.
CHILDLINE 1098 is a phone number that spells hope for millions of children across India. It is a 24-hour a day, 365 days a year, free, emergency phone service for children in need of aid and assistance. We not only respond to the emergency needs of children but also link them to relevant services for their long-term care and rehabilitation
The vision of the CHILDLINE is A child – friendly nation that guarantees the rights and protection of all children.
Childline works for the protection of the rights of all children in general. But its special focus is on all children in need of care and protection, especially the more vulnerable sections, which include:
- Street children and youth living alone on the streets
- Child labourers working in the unorganised and organized sectors
- Domestic help, especially girl domestics
- Children affected by physical / sexual / emotional abuse in family, schools or institutions.
- Children who need emotional support and guidance
- Children of commercial sex workers
- Child victims of the flesh trade
- Victims of child trafficking
- Children abandoned by parents or guardians
- Missing children
- Runaway children
- Children who are victims of substance abuse
- Differently-abled children
- Children in conflict with the law
- Children in institutions
- Mentally challenged children
- HIV/ AIDS infected children
- Children affected by conflict and disaster
- Child political refugees
- Children whose families are in crisis
The Vision that Moulded CHILD-LINE
A child – friendly nation that guarantees the rights and protection of all children.
CHILDLINE in action
The activities of CHILDLINE include
- The CHILDLINE team receives & responds to the calls
- Crisis Intervention
- Direct assistance: medical, shelter, protection from abuse, repatriation, death, missing children, intensive counselling
- On phone: Emotional support and guidance, information and referral to services for the caller, information about CHILDLINE, silent calls
- Long-term rehabilitation
- After the emergency needs of the child have been addressed, CHILDLINE explores options with the child to study, learn a trade, go back home, etc. Based on the decision of the child, CHILDLINE links the child to an appropriate organization in the city.
At CHILDLINE, we follow an action process which starts at the first call and continues till the child in need of care and protection is safely rehabilitated. To put it simply, our work includes several stages which are:
- Call 1098 – Any child or a concerned adult can dial the CHILDLINE 1098 toll – free helpline, which operates night and day.
- Rescue in 60 minutes – Once CHILDLINE has enough details about child or children in distress, the CHILDLINE team rushes to help children within 60 minutes to bring children out of an emergency situation.
- Intervention – Once CHILDLINE intervenes to help the child, it works with multiple stakeholders such as police authorities, child protection boards, social workers and counselors. Children’s consent and participation is an important component of this process from response to intervention.
- Rehabilitation and Follow Up – After the interventions, to ensure the child’s continued safety, CHILDLINE proceeds to find long-term rehabilitation for the child. For this, the CHILDLINE team does constantly follow-ups with the child – meeting the family or visiting the shelter if a child has been assigned to stay in one.
The Girls Advocacy Alliance focuses on combating violence against girls and young women and increasing their economic participation in Khammam district. Violence and economic exclusion are closely linked. Girls massively drop out of secondary and vocational education, especially due to child marriage, sexual violence, trafficking and the worst forms of child labor. Their chance to ever get a ‘decent’ job is minimal. And vice-versa; without income and independence, they are more vulnerable to violence.
GOALS
The Girls Advocacy Alliance program has explicated four strategic objectives to eliminate violence against and economic exclusion of girls and young women, focusing on four main actors:
- By ensuring that key leaders (traditional, religious, community) and role models of the local community promote norms and values which positively advance girls and encourage their development in society. These key leaders and role models act as champions of change.
- By influencing civil society organisations and networks so that they advocate for the active implementation of policies that challenge girls’ and women’s economic exclusion and gender-based violence, while coordinating their interventions.
- By advocating for more effective implementation of legislation and public policies to protect girls and young women through Government line departments
- By getting the corporate sector committed to the elimination of violence against girls in their supply chain. The corporate sector provides access to work, safer workplaces, better working conditions for girls and young women and supports the transition from school to work for girls.
WHAT WE DO
The Girls Advocacy Alliance is addressing gender-based violence and economic exclusion of girls and young women in the following ways:
- Capacity building of civil society organisations, specifically organisations focusing on young women, to advocate and sensitise government officials, the corporate sector as well as the general public.
- These civil society organisations conduct advocacy campaigns in their own countries, as well as lobby regional bodies such as the African Union.
My choices foundation committed to stopping domestic violence and sex trafficking.
Human Trafficking Statistics
- Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing crime industry in the world today.
- Every three minutes a girl in India is sold into slavery: the average age is twelve years old.
- 200,000 Indian children are tricked, kidnapped or coerced into slavery every year.
- Fewer than one percent of these girls are ever rescued.
- Public awareness is the most effective barrier to human trafficking.
Our 3-Pillar approach
Operation Red Alert has developed a 3 Pillar approach to prevent the trafficking of girls. Our aim is to stop trafficking before it reaches families and steals girls’ lives.
Expose by Mass Media Campaign
The number one barrier to ending human trafficking is awareness. The general Indian public is still largely unaware that trafficking exists, let alone that India has disproportionately more slaves than any other country in the world. We aim to see trafficking become something every Indian is committed to ending. If we are on #RedAlert, India’s daughters will be safe.
Empower by National Helpline
Prior to our helpline, there was no exclusive, national helpline for sex trafficking. With 95 million mobile phones in the country this is an opportunity to put the power to take action in the hands of those who need it most. The helpline is based on a coalition effort of Operation Red Alert’s partner NGOs.
Eradicate by Grassroots Education
Preventing trafficking is impossible if we do not educate the families and villages that traffickers are targeting. In India, most families have no idea that their girls are being taken and sold into sexual exploitation. Most NGO’s efforts are spent in the rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked girls. The Operation Red Alert Safe Village Toolkit is reaching at-risk villages around India, teaching families how to keep their daughters safe.