Special features of the organization
Childline India Foundation (CIF) is the apex voluntary organization anchoring Childline 1098 - a national, toll free, 24x7, emergency phone outreach service for children in distress. Any child or concerned adult, calling on behalf of the child, is assured of assistance from a team mandated to reach the child within an hour of receiving a call on 1098. , , The 1098 service is accessed mostly by disadvantaged children calling for resolution to a variety of issues abuse, child labour, abandonment, neglect, abduction, disabilities, critical illnesses, child marriage, lack of opportunities / resources for schooling, and quite often simply the absence of anyone to relate to. Childline responds to these calls and intervenes through a network of about 550 local NGO partner organizations across 280 cities. During April 2012 to March 2013 Childline received 41,25,791 calls as against 24,27,608 calls the previous year. On an average, this works out to about 11,303 calls daily for 2012-13. , , The 1098 service has also kept pace with the changing technological advances in the telcom sector. The Childline cities of the northern and western regions are now connected to a centralized call centre, Childline Contact Centre (CCC), at Mumbai, to enable a more standardized call response and enhanced monitoring and data management. All the intervention calls are, however, routed to the respective cities for follow up. A similar arrangement is in the pipeline for the eastern and the southern regions. , , All the calls received across the country are documented and the details fed into a central computer for analysis. This yields valuable data regarding the type of calls received, hot spots of child rights violations as well as the key issues faced by children. This is brought out in the form of an annual publication ChildNet in order to support the various advocacy initiatives. , , The Childline services began as a field action project, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, on 20th June 1996. It was initiated by Jeroo Billimoria who was a faculty at the Institute, and mentored by Dr Armaity Deasai who was then Director of the Institute. It was registered under the Societies Registration Act on 28th May 1999, and under the Bombay Public Trust Act on 10th September 2000. , , Childline India Foundation has won several awards for its programs as well as governance. The following are some of the more prominent ones: , , The National award in the Medium sized NGOs category by the Resource Alliance Indian NGO Award in 2007; Outstanding Annual Report Award 2010 , in Large Category, by the CSO Partner s; The Best Non - Governmental Organisation (NGO) award, by the State Government of Karnataka for working towards the eradication of child labour. Childline is a project of the Ministry of women and Child Development (MWCD).
