2.39 crore calls received by govt's child helpline service from 2018 to Aug 2020: WCD ministry

A total of 2.39 crore calls were received by the government's child helpline service from 2018 till August this year, the Centre informed Parliament on Thursday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani presented data, according to which the child helpline received 1.12 crore calls in 2018, 78.64 lakh calls in 2019 and 48.18 lakh calls till August this year.

According to the data, a total of 2,39,70,624 calls have been received by the helpline since 2018.

"Presently, CHILDLINE services are available in 594 districts. As on January 1, 2018, CHILDLINE services were available in 413 districts. As on September 15, 2020, the coverage has been enhanced to 594 districts," the minister said.

"Average wait time and duration for the Child Helpline depends on the traffic of calls at a particular time. The mandate for the Childline team is to reach the incident spot within 60 minutes of receiving a case complaint. However, the actual response time depends also on factors such as geographical location (hilly area, metro city), availability of transport etc.," she added.

Irani said a committee under the chairpersonship of the Minister of State for Women and Child Development has been formed to look into re-organising the functionality of the Childline.