SHILLONG, Aug 14: The Social Welfare department has augmented the 1098 Child Helpline service under the Mission Vatsalya scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The department had activated the 24-hour emergency outreach service for children in crisis in conformity with the Juvenile Justice, Care and Protection of Children Act, 2015.
Talking to reporters here on Monday, Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh said the Child Helpline Service is being manned by the Child Helpline administrator alone.
Lyngdoh said the department has been able to strengthen this service by sanctioning 14 new posts which include ten call operators, two security guards, one IT supervisor and one multipurpose staff.
“Since the service was activated in 2019 there was just a lone staff. One can imagine the success rate of such a service,” he said.
He said they will now have ten call operators and it means the service will be faster and people can reach out to the authorities these call operators at the earliest.
“So this is a big leap forward for the department to make 1098 child helpline service more effective,” he said.
Replying to a query, he said that they had issued the advertisement on August 10 and added that the department is expected to complete the recruitment process for these 14 posts within a month’s time.
Besides, the child helpline service, Lyngdoh informed that they had also activated the 181 women’s helpline service.
“We have recently installed the latest gadgets and machines which will help to track calls goals and also track the response system. And also there is a dedicated website which has been activated in order to enable this service to be at its peak as mentioned,” the minister added.
