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CHILDLINE
is the nation’s first 24-hour toll-free emergency
outreach service for children in need of care and protection. It
provides emergency assistance to children and then links them to
long-term services for their care and rehabilitation. Any
child/concerned adult on behalf of the child can dial 1098 and
access the CHILDLINE service any time of the day or night.
Initiated as an experimental project of the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, CHILDLINE has grown into a
partnership between the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment, Government of India, voluntary agencies, the Allied
Systems, academic institutes, the corporate sector children and
the community.
The CHILDLINE India Foundation (CIF)
is the central nodal agency for replication and monitoring of
the CHILDLINE service, research, documentation, awareness and
advocacy on issues related to child protection. It also
undertakes the initiation of specialized need based services
based on trends emerging from analysis of calls.
Today, CHILDLINE functions through a network of over 160
organizations in 56 cities / districts, spread across 21 States
of the country. In a developing nation like India where state
mechanisms are unable to reach children in emergency situations
CHILDLINE provides an effective link between children and the
system.
A friend in need
When children are ill, have met with accidents, been in fights,
need shelter, have been abused, are lost, have been abandoned by
family, just need some one to talk to, or even when they are
dying alone on the streets - CHILDLINE stands for hope, the one
place they can call and be assured of complete acceptance and
timely assistance.
CHILDLINE is a response to India’s ratification of the United
Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. We pride
ourselves on being the only agency in the country that offers
comprehensive child protection services to children and are
available to them where they are and when they need it.
We believe that every child has a right to be protected and that
every child deserves a childhood. To this end we aim to reach
out to every child in each district of the country.
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Areas
of Operation
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Child
Welfare
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| Key
Activities
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Establishing
CHILDLINEs in India: CIF works closely with
children, NGOs and Government officials prior to the
establishment of CHILDLINE. During the preparatory phase,
CIF conducts a need assessment study and compiles a
resource directory to determine the operational strategy
of the helpline.
In addition CIF conducts an intensive in-house training
workshop with the CHILDLINE team to share with them the
philosophy and learnings of the service from across the
country.
Facilitating networking
and partnerships: CIF closely works with partners in every city
towards strengthening a child protection network. CIF work
towards this through email based communication with
partners on a regular basis and bi-annual visits to the
city.
In addition, CIF organizes annual Partnership Meets. These
meets provide a forum for the CHILDLINE team members, co-ordinators
and directors to share experiences and learn from each
other. CIF also co-ordinates ‘twinning’ visits between
different CHILDLINEs to encourage in-depth sharing of
experiences between team members.
Policy, Research and
Documentation: CIF publishes reports on several issues affecting
children such as child trafficking, missing children,
child rights and the law.
In addition, CIF shares the experiences of CHILDLINE
nationally through its monthly newsletters that highlight
the calls received and emerging issues. CIF also presents
these issues to the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment to assist in the formulation of child friendly
policies.
Awareness and Advocacy: CIF
is also involved in creating a national brand image for
the service. It develops innovative awareness materials
for CHILDLINE cities to generate awareness about the
service and mobilize resources.
Through its awareness campaigns, CIF aims at sensitising
the community about child protection issues and the need
for a partnership to reach out every child in need of care
and protection.
Developing new
programmes and services: Based on the national trends that emerge
in CHILDLINE cities, the CIF initiates innovative
programmes / services to address the needs. These new
services are undertaken by the CIF as experimental
projects. It is visualised that based on the success of
these projects, the CIF would hand over these projects to
other organisations or formalise the same within the CIF
structure. |
| Contact
Information
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Contact
Person
• Kajol
Menon
( Head, Awareness and Advocacy Deptt.)
• Shilpa
Ahluwalia
Address
2 nd Floor,
Nana Chowk Municipal School
Frere Bridge (Low Level), Near Grant Road Station
Mumbai 400 007, INDIA
Phone 23871098
/ 23881098
Fax 23811098
E-mail shilpa@childlineindia.org.in
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