CHILDLINE - A Successful
model of NGO-GO partnership
Through the last
15 years of incessant work pioneered by Trivandrum Don Bosco Veedu Society, in
collaboration with CHILDLINE India Foundation, Government of India and other NGOs; CHILDLINE has transformed
itself into a lifeline for children in Kerala with above 90% of reporting of child
related issues to CHILDLINE. Effective interventions throughout the district of
Trivandrum by the Society have created a child safety net across the district
as can be seen in the overwhelming response and reporting of issues to CHILDLINE.
On March 25, 2000, Don Bosco became the collaborative
agency to run the first CHILDLINE service in Kerala. With the advocacy efforts
of the society and other likeminded NGOs, presently the network has spread across
Kerala.
In
1989, CHILDLINE founder Jeroo Billimoria worked closely with street children in Mumbai as a social worker. She gave the children
her telephone number and told them to call if they needed any help, after which
her phone did not stop ringing. That is when Jeroo realised that these children
really needed someone to speak to, someone to assist them. The idea of a toll-free number emerged. She set up CHILDLINE
INDIA - India's first and only child helpline.
CHILDLINE's
approach was to have volunteers who answered the phone and who would
go directly to the child in need. The volunteers kept a log of the calls. This
log would then become very important data for the creation of child protection
policies, thus placing the helplines at the centre of child protection policy.
CHILDLINE India Foundation (CIF) is currently the nodal agency of the
Union Ministry of Women and Child Development acting as the parent organisation
for setting up, managing and monitoring the CHILDLINE 1098 service all over the
country. CIF is the sole agency/body responsible for establishing the CHILDLINE
service in the cities/districts of the country, monitoring of service delivery
and finance, training, research and documentation, creating awareness, advocacy
as well as resource generation for the service.
CHILDLINE 1098
service is a 24 hour free emergency phone outreach service for children in need
of care and protection. CIF undertakes replication of CHILDLINE, networking and
facilitation, training, research and documentation, and Communications and
Strategic Initiatives both at the national and international level.
This can be
stated as one of the most successful model of NGO- GO partnership programme across
the states of India. The very fact that the programme is of the Government,
there is support and help from Government Departments to the NGOs and there is
sanction especially when any party to child related issue is called for. This
provides added advantage to the service oriented NGOs. If the programme is
directly run by the Government it could never be so successful like many other
programmes due to the functional difficulties and the absence of service
mentality and accountability which is often difficult to elicit from Government
run mechanisms and employees.
The four C’s that are held as principles by
the CHILDLINE India foundation to ensure the rights and protection of a child
are:-
- CONNECT through
technology to reach the 'last mile'.
- CATALYSE systems
through active advocacy.
- COLLABORATE through
integrated efforts between children, the state, civil society, corporate,
and community to build a child friendly social order.
- COMMUNICATE to
make child protection everybody's priority.
In 2015,
CHILDLINE Trivandrum has received over 70000
calls and we have provide direct interventions to over 1200 children and
these numbers speak for themselves. Over the past few years, there is greater
reporting and we were able to reach almost every child in need of care and
protection within the district. CHILDLINE is indeed a lifeline for children across
Kerala.
