• Child helpline 1098, which is being integrated with the Emergency Response Support System 112 (ERSS-112), will be operated directly by state and district functionaries in nine states and Union Territories from  next month.

• These nine states and UTs are — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Puducherry, Goa, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Mizoram, Gujarat and Bihar.

• The other states/UTs will also be on-boarded in a phase-wise manner.

• The government has taken a decision to integrate child helpline 1098 with ERSS-112 for all emergency cases so that immediate help can be provided to children in distress.

Child helpline 1098

• Child helpline 1098 is a 24x7 emergency phone outreach service for children in crisis which links them to emergency and long-term care and rehabilitation services. The service can be accessed by any child in crisis or an adult on behalf of/for a child, by dialing the four-digit toll free number - 1098.

• Earlier, the ministry of women and child development was supporting the child helpline service, through Childline India Foundation (CIF) and its partner NGOs.

• CIF launched the country’s first toll free tele-helpline for street children in distress in 1996.

• Currently, the CIF is rendering childline services in 568 districts, 135 railway stations and 11 bus stands through its network of over 1,000 units, taking 60 minutes to respond to children’s distress calls.

• The current system, however, lacks interoperability with other services like police, fire, ambulance which leads to loss of precious time in distress situations. 

• Therefore, the government has taken a decision to integrate child helpline with ERSS-112.

How the new system works?

• According to the new Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs), the incoming calls to 1098 will be classified into three categories — Emergency calls, Non-Emergency calls and Information calls.

• All emergency calls can be forwarded from 1098 to 112 or vice versa on the switch of a button. 

• Non-emergency calls may be transferred to respective child helpline (CHL) units at district child protection units.

• Information calls will be handled at WCD CR itself or may be transferred to CHL Units of District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) for providing information to the caller. 

• All calls on 1098 will land on the WCD Control Room of child helpline in respective states/UTs and emergency calls will be forwarded to ERSS-112 of MHA.

Emergency Response Support System (ERSS)

• With a view to enable active use of technology to strengthen emergency response services, especially for safety of women in public places, the ministry of home affairs is implementing a project titled ‘Emergency Response Support System (ERSS)’.

• The government notified 112 as the emergency number for the country. 

• ERSS is a pan-India, internationally recognised number 112-based Emergency Response Support System for various emergencies such as police, fire, ambulance, etc, with computer-aided dispatch of field resources accessible through calls, SMS, e-mail, panic button and the 112 India mobile app.

• The mandate of ERSS is to provide an operational platform which would support linking of various emergency service providers in states/UTs to 112 emergency number.

• 112 is a globally recognised single emergency number, adopted by many countries. Most of the  phone handsets are manufactured with pre-programmed 112 as emergency number to be dialled with a single key press.

• The TRAI allotted this number for the purpose of single emergency number in India in May 2015.

• All smartphones sold after January 1, 2017 will have the functionality of a panic button which would be activated by pressing the power button three times. The similar functionality in a feature phone would be activated with the press of numeric key 5 or 9 consistently. This panic button will lead to  automatic dialling of emergency number 112.

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