CHI - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What do you mean by a child helpline?
A Child Helpline is an emergency phone service that provides assistance, access to other services and plans for the long term rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection. Helplines help in providing confidentiality to its callers while at the same time ensuring instant access to support and care.

2. Who are the children in need of care and protection?
Children in need of care and protection include Street children, abandoned children, missing children, runaway children, children living in slums, children engaged in child labour, victims of sexual/physical emotional abuse, child victims of natural disasters, Differently abled children child victims of the flesh trade, refugee children, child victims of substance abuse, children with HIV/AIDS or whose parents are affected by HIV/AIDS, children of women in prostitution, children in conflict with the law, children in institutions, mentally ill children or children whose families are in crisis.

3. Who do you term as children? Which target group can avail of the child helpline services? Is there any age limit?
Children at the Child Helpline cater to all those individuals between the ages of 18 to 21 years upto a maximum age of 25 years in emergency situations. The helpline focuses on the most marginalized group of children in economically developing countries.

4. What is the need of a separate Helpline for children?
Children in need of care and protection are a very vulnerable target group. These children are often not aware of their rights and have no knowledge or awareness about the services that are available for them. Therefore a Child Helpline serves as a vital link between children in need of care and protection and resources or services available for them. A Helpline also serves as an important advocacy tool for the key area of Child Rights and Child Protection.

5. In my country, there is no connectivity through public phones! My country has poor telephone infrastructure! Can it still have a helpline?
Helplines and Information technology play a far greater role especially in developing countries that lack infrastructure. There are many alternative innovative and cost effective technologies that help reach the marginalized child and link tem to available services. Advocacy based on the data and issues of children provided by Helplines further plays an important role in creating services and infrastructure.

6. Does a helpline only respond to calls coming in?
No! In countries with a not so developed telecommunication infrastructure to reach out to the marginalized child, the child helpline does not limit its services to only phone calls. Outreach activities, meeting with children, going on awareness rounds play an equally important role in reaching out to children. Therefore, the concept of a helpline includes outreach services for children and young adults along with tele-communication

7. Will a child helpline reduce poverty? Can it help in sending children to school?
Child helplines link the children in need of care and protection and the available services in the country. Helplines take in a large spectrum of calls for different kinds of emergency services for the child. Immediate and individual responses by a helpline will definitely create a larger impact on issues that concern children; it could be family crisis due to reasons like poverty or greater access to basic facilities like education.

8. Who are your callers?
Callers at the helpline could be children themselves, concerned adults or individuals from different systems working with children. However the Child Helpline should encourage children to be the primary callers who trust the Helpline services and identifies it as their own. A successful and truly representative Child Helpline would be one where children directly call up the Helpline and avail of its services.

9. Do children actually call the Child Helpline by themselves?
Yes! Children do call the Child Helpline. The more grassroot level awareness, the more calls come in from children. Awareness with children should be oriented towards establishing CHILDLINE as a service, which is of children, by children and for children. A service, which the children could call their own and participate in its every aspect.

10. Why do children call?
Children call in at the Helpline to share their problems, experiences or even emotions, at times to just talk about the events of the day, It is important therefore to treat every call as important, for each child calling in once to talk/share could be a potential child in need of care and protection!
Experiences collated from different Child Helplines reveal that children call in for assistance often call in for reasons like shelter, medical, emotional support and guidance, family crisis, abuse (physical/emotional/sexual), missing children, repatriation of children, death of children, bullying, pregnancy, school related problems etc. Indirect assistance calls that come in, range from information, volunteer support, administrative or calls where children call in to share their experiences.

11. What if the policeman refuses to help?
What if the hospital denies admission to the child referred by the Helpline?
There will be systems in the country that may not be sensitized to the needs of children or lack a child rights perspective . Therefore a Child Helpline should simultaneously devise sensitization trainings and programmes for all the systems that come in contact with the child. In India, we term these systems as Allied Systems- systems that are allies of children and therefore of the Child Helpline. National, regional and city level trainings are regularly organised for sensitising different allied sytems and also for strengthening partnerships.


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	Frequently Asked Questions 1. What do you mean by a child helpline? A Child Helpline is an emergency phone service that provides assistance, access to other services and plans for the long term rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection. Helplines help in providing confidentiality to its callers while at the same time ensuring instant access to support and care. 2. Who are the children in need of care and protection? Children in need of care and protection include Street children, abandoned children, missing children, runaway children, children living in slums, children engaged in child labour, victims of sexual/physical emotional abuse, child victims of natural disasters, Differently abled children child victims of the flesh trade, refugee children, child victims of substance abuse, children with HIV/AIDS or whose parents are affected by HIV/AIDS, children of women in prostitution, children in conflict with the law, children in institutions, mentally ill children or children whose families are in crisis. 3. Who do you term as children? Which target group can avail of the child helpline services? Is there any age limit? Children at the Child Helpline cater to all those individuals between the ages of 18 to 21 years upto a maximum age of 25 years in emergency situations. The helpline focuses on the most marginalized group of children in economically developing countries. 4. What is the need of a separate Helpline for children? Children in need of care and protection are a very vulnerable target group. These children are often not aware of their rights and have no knowledge or awareness about the services that are available for them. Therefore a Child Helpline serves as a vital link between children in need of care and protection and resources or services available for them. A Helpline also serves as an important advocacy tool for the key area of Child Rights and Child Protection. 5. In my country, there is no connectivity through public phones! My country has poor telephone infrastructure! Can it still have a helpline? Helplines and Information technology play a far greater role especially in developing countries that lack infrastructure. There are many alternative innovative and cost effective technologies that help reach the marginalized child and link tem to available services. Advocacy based on the data and issues of children provided by Helplines further plays an important role in creating services and infrastructure. 6. Does a helpline only respond to calls coming in? No! In countries with a not so developed telecommunication infrastructure to reach out to the marginalized child, the child helpline does not limit its services to only phone calls. Outreach activities, meeting with children, going on awareness rounds play an equally important role in reaching out to children. Therefore, the concept of a helpline includes outreach services for children and young adults along with tele-communication 7. Will a child helpline reduce poverty? Can it help in sending children to school? Child helplines link the children in need of care and protection and the available services in the country. Helplines take in a large spectrum of calls for different kinds of emergency services for the child. Immediate and individual responses by a helpline will definitely create a larger impact on issues that concern children; it could be family crisis due to reasons like poverty or greater access to basic facilities like education. 8. Who are your callers? Callers at the helpline could be children themselves, concerned adults or individuals from different systems working with children. However the Child Helpline should encourage children to be the primary callers who trust the Helpline services and identifies it as their own. A successful and truly representative Child Helpline would be one where children directly call up the Helpline and avail of its services. 9. Do children actually call the Child Helpline by themselves? Yes! Children do call the Child Helpline. The more grassroot level awareness, the more calls come in from children. Awareness with children should be oriented towards establishing CHILDLINE as a service, which is of children, by children and for children. A service, which the children could call their own and participate in its every aspect. 10. Why do children call? Children call in at the Helpline to share their problems, experiences or even emotions, at times to just talk about the events of the day, It is important therefore to treat every call as important, for each child calling in once to talk/share could be a potential child in need of care and protection! Experiences collated from different Child Helplines reveal that children call in for assistance often call in for reasons like shelter, medical, emotional support and guidance, family crisis, abuse (physical/emotional/sexual), missing children, repatriation of children, death of children, bullying, pregnancy, school related problems etc. Indirect assistance calls that come in, range from information, volunteer support, administrative or calls where children call in to share their experiences. 11. What if the policeman refuses to help? What if the hospital denies admission to the child referred by the Helpline? There will be systems in the country that may not be sensitized to the needs of children or lack a child rights perspective . Therefore a Child Helpline should simultaneously devise sensitization trainings and programmes for all the systems that come in contact with the child. In India, we term these systems as Allied Systems- systems that are allies of children and therefore of the Child Helpline. National, regional and city level trainings are regularly organised for sensitising different allied sytems and also for strengthening partnerships.
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