No homes for girls & special kids, Childline working impeded

Nitish Sharma

In Ambala district, the Childline unit has registered nearly 2,700 distress calls since 2011. Of the total, 1,036 complaints were related to missing children, 801 to protection from abuse including physical, sexual, emotional and corporal punishment, 22 to child marriage and 52 to shelter needs.

Childline 1098 (a project of the Ministry of Women and Child Development) is a nationalised, emergency referral service managed by Zila Yuva Vikas Sanghathan (ZYVS), (a collaborative non-governmental organisation) in Ambala since 2011 and has registered 2,692 cases till October 9.

Currently, nine volunteers are working with the unit. The volunteers working with the Childline say that Ambala is a major junction and they get calls to rescue or provide shelter to children.

But the absence of Child Care Institute (CCI) for girls and a home for specially abled children has become a major cause of concern for the team.

Volunteers said after being rescued, the children are produced before the Child Welfare Committee for further orders.

As per the information available, medical help was provided to 53 children and emotional support and guidance were given to 136 children by the counsellor of Childline.

As many as 41 child labourers were rescued from shops, industrial areas, stalls and residences; 22 cases of child marriage were registered and 52 children — abandoned or surrendered by family or orphaned — were given permanent shelter in other districts.

As many as 801 children were provided help related to abuse such as physical, sexual, emotional, domestic violence, begging, stalking, neglect and corporal punishment while 306 children were given help related to conflict with law, death, education, linkage with schemes and registration of entitlements.

The volunteers said the real task after rescuing the children begins in the absence of Child Care Institute for girls.

Naresh Mittal, general secretary of ZYVS, said, “There is no home for ‘divyang’ children especially visually, hearing and speech impaired, emotionally disturbed, ones with intellectual disabilities such as mild, moderate or severe impairment in Ambala. As a result, these children are sent to other districts for shelter. The meetings of the District Child Protection Committee are not conducted regularly which causes difficulty in processing the work of Childline. We’re unable to discuss the issues faced by us. There is no CCI (Child Care Institute) for girls in Ambala district because of which shelter to the girl child is given in other districts.”

Mohit Aggarwal, a former member of Child Welfare Committee, said, “There is an open shelter home (for a couple of days’ stay only) in Ambala Cantonment but it doesn’t have the facility to keep girls. Recently, a child care institute was opened in Naraingarh, but it is only for boys and that too, for the age group of 6 to 18 years. The NGO has also applied for the ‘shishu greh’ (for 0 to 5 year-old children) but the file is yet to be approved. There must be a couple of homes for girls as the Childline and Child Welfare Committee face issues in providing shelter to girls.”

Rekha Sharma, a member of Child Welfare Committee, said “We have already written to the authorities concerned in this regard and NGOs are also being motivated to come forward and apply for CCIs. We are hopeful that the district will get a CCI for girls soon.”