1098 helpline merger hits child-friendly support hard

Upon asking for food, the minor was brought to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Central Delhi where he had langar. Spotting the boy, this correspondent dialled 1098, the child helpline that has for decades served as a safety net for children in distress.

What followed exposed glaring gaps in child protection services that have emerged since July 2023, when 1098 was merged with 112, the general emergency number.

The first responder advised, “Madam, why don’t you call 100?” Next, the call was diverted to 112. An acknowledgement message followed with a Police Control Room (PCR) vehicle number. Within minutes, two uniformed policemen came and took the boy away. The next day after medical checks, Narendra was produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and shifted to a shelter home.

Under the post-merger system, guidelines mandate that children in distress be accompanied by juvenile welfare officers, preferably in civil dress.

Instead, uniformed police took Narendra away. “This is not the environment of care 1098 was built on,” a child rights activist told The Tribune, adding that with agencies understaffed under the new system, distressed children are now mostly being dealt with by the police.

“A missing child case should have been handled by trained childcare professionals, not cops alone,” Santosh Gupta of Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), an NGO with Childline India Foundation (CIF), told The Tribune when asked about Narendra’s case.

Before the merger, in 2020-21, CIF and partner NGOs had responded to over 5 million calls helping nearly 3,95,000 children.

But in July 2023, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) announced discontinuation of NGO involvement in Childline, a service that had operated successfully since 1995. Terming the move as part of ‘One Nation One Helpline’ initiative, the ministry reasoned, “The current system lacks interoperability with other services, including police, fire and ambulance services. This causes loss of precious time in distress situations.”

It was mandated that states would maintain a dedicated 24×7 Women and Child Development (WCD) Control Room integrated with ERSS 112. In districts, a round-the-clock Child Helpline (CHL) will run from the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) to connect children in crisis with emergency support and long-term care.

New standard operating procedures said emergency calls to 1098 would now be forwarded to ERSS-112, with the Child Helpline unit at respective DCPUs informed immediately.

But The Tribune investigation showed SOPs were not working.

When this correspondent contacted the DCPU to follow up on Narendra’s case, the responder had no information. “Madam, you have handed over the child to the police; that’s enough. What else do you want to know?” said a staff member.

Another said, “If the police took the child, they must have taken him to the CWC.”

The police officer concerned in Narendra’s case said, “Just like you, people at DCPU also call us and take updates, they do nothing.”

Experts say India’s child protection services have so far relied on over 1,000 NGOs across 568 districts, 135 railway stations, and 11 bus stands. But the merger has left many social workers jobless, requiring the government to train new cadres for the sector.

“But in most cases under the new structure, sensitivity and confidentiality are the first casualties, since the initial responders are usually police personnel — and this may not serve the best interests of the child. Can the police respond like trained professionals if a child is found sexually abused or mentally ill?” a sector expert asked.

A source at DCPU handling Narendra’s case also confirmed that state-run systems were overstretched and understaffed. “If you call between 10 pm and 6 am, most likely only the police will come, because we don’t have night staff,” he said.

Earlier, 1098 relied on NGOs funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and later WCD. Their staff were trained to handle children with empathy — offering food, counselling, clothing and emotional support before navigating legal procedures. With NGOs out, the load has shifted to Childline India Foundation, DCPUs and CWCs, all struggling with manpower and resources.

“In Delhi alone, earlier there were 33 staffers working round the clock across New Delhi station, Old Delhi station and the district. Today, there are five or six, and sometimes they are also on leave,” explained an activist, requesting anonymity.

“So when 1098 is dialled, calls go to 112. That means police, not social workers, turn up.”

He recounted an incident involving a pregnant woman and her two children found wandering the streets. “The police arrived and, on discovering that the woman was mentally unstable, took her to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), gave her some medication and dropped her back on the street,” he said, highlighting that officers are not trained to manage sensitive situations.

The Tribune sought details from the WCD Ministry on the number of cases reported since July 2023, as well as its response to concerns over police handling and understaffed DCPUs. There was no reply until the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, for NGOs linked to the 1098 era, the transition to a new system has meant exclusion. “We were surprised by this sudden takeover,” says Sangeeta Jund, former Project Director of Child Helpline, which operated in Chandigarh and Mohali and responded to over 1,000 cases annually.

She said in the previous system, a support person would be there for the child for six months even after the immediate crisis. “We had the capacity to send support personnel to the child when required. This ensured the child’s overall wellbeing. I am not sure these aspects are there in the current system,” she says.

Like other NGOs with CIF, Jund had to let her 30 trained childcare staffers go.

Meanwhile, Narendra is yet to reunite with his family. "He is staying at a child shelter, we have not been able to locate his parents yet," the police said.