OVERCOMING CHALLENGES TO SAFEGUARD CHILDREN

 

Vimala Rani is working as a case manager at Bengaluru Junction Child Help Desk since 13 years. She has been working with the Bosco Yuvodaya a partner of CHILDLINE India Foundation since 15 years. Prior to CHILDLINE, she has worked with another NGO for seven years. She has a total work experience of over 20 years in the development sector working with children.

Currently, I am working as a case manager. Previously, I have worked as a team member. My key roles and responsibilities include conducting outreach and awareness programs for stakeholders and the general public and rescuing and rehabilitating the children. When we rescue the child, we try to understand their situation, their basic needs and fulfil them.  We follow the entire due diligence process.  For the initial discussion, we fill up the intervention form for our record keeping. Then we inform the GRP for General Diary entry.  If we have to produce the child before CWC (Child Welfare Committee), we have to fill up the form 17. Whenever we rescue a child we inform CWC via a telephone call. After listening to the full story they will give order whether to restore with the parents or produce the child before CWC or sent to CCI for further process and counselling.

Based on their orders we conduct rest of proceedings. If we have to hand over the child to parents, we take a signed form 18 from them; family photo, ration card, aadhar card and the parents have to write a letter to Child Help Desk stating that they are taking the child. If the child is studying we take the school or study certificate. After verifying all the documents we send the child with the parents. We also show the file with all the documents to the CWC members.  They verify and sign the file.

At the Bengaluru station, we receive cases of trafficking, yellow pill i.e. elopement cases, runaway and lost and found cases. Whenever we receive an eloping case, our entire day goes in proceedings of the case. In most cases of eloping cases, the girls are around 12, 13 or 15 years and are accompanied by the boys who are around 20-22 or 30 years age. Initially, the girl says that the boy is her brother. We know that they are lying. So we separate them and give them time to open up and tell the truth. We also try to check their aadhar card or any other documentation, if they have. While counselling the girl usually starts to tell the truth. Often, they just take 100 rupees in their pocket and run away. When we question them they say Bengaluru is a big city, we will earn something for ourselves. But they do not understand reality, it is not easy.

In trafficking cases, we face a lot of language barriers, especially when the children are from different regions. Intervening and communicating with children who are from religious Institutions is difficult because people from their community gather around us while we rescue them.  When the traffickers say that the children are going for study, it becomes difficult for us to intervene. The children often say that they are studying in the first standard.  In reality, they have never gone to school in their native place. We definitely do not let them go. When we ask them to show documents for study purpose, they do not have anything. We have to be strict and firm in such cases. If we get the chance to talk to the children in person, they reveal the real reason. When we take the children and the traffickers to the police station, they say that they are relatives. This becomes a real problem for us. Even if police refuses to file an FIR, we do not send the children with the traffickers. We ask the parents to come and verify. When the parents arrive with the documents, we produce the children and the parents in front CWC. The CWC will verify all the documents and then they will send the children to their home.  We do phone follow-ups after every 15 days, 30 days, 45 days, 90 days, 6 months, 9months and 1 year. We talk to the parents. If the child is available at home we talk to the child. If they require, we do telephonic counselling for the children.

We faced several challenges while working on cases during the pandemic. Only the CHILDLINE staff was working from the railway stations.  We rescued many children during the pandemic. The biggest challenge for us was getting the COVID tests are done and arranging for the quarantine facilities. Whenever we have to send a child to the open shelter, the first thing they whether the COVID test is done. Since the last two months, the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) staff is working at the railway station. They are doing the COVID test for all the passengers and children. They give the results very quickly. We have built a good rapport with them. 

During the pandemic, in September, I rescued three local children, one brother-sister and a cousin. They were around 11, 12 and 13 years. They came to Bengaluru station to go to Andhra Pradesh. Their mother had remarried. The children had problems with the stepfather. Every day their stepfather was beating them up. The children couldn’t stay at home any longer. I received them at the Bengaluru station at 6.30 pm and immediately informed the CWC members. Next day morning, we came to know that the missing complaint report had been filed by the parents. The police and the parents both came and we restored the children with the family. Now I am doing the phone follow up. We also help them with the ration kits since they were very poor.

Working with CHILDLINE on the frontlines has been a great experience. Every day is a new learning experience. I share my everyday learnings with my daughters. Every day, I have a new story to tell my family. I tell my daughters about what problems children are facing. Working with CHILDLINE, I learnt how to speak softly and build a good rapport with children.  When you work for an organization like CHILDLINE, do not work for a salary. You should work from your heart. When I rescue children and help them, I consider them as my own. Pyaar se kaam karna hai.

I also have one message for the parents. Please be friendly and patient with your children. Give them a chance and listen to them. The family is extremely important.  If you are friendly with your children, they will never run away from you.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT

 

Sachin Dilip Dighe has been working with CHILDLINE past 2 years. He joined as a case manager.  After a year, he was promoted as a project coordinator. Currently, he manages a team of 19 people in three shifts at the Child Help Desk at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).

I have 12 years of work experience in the development sector. But I never had the chance to work with the age group of 0-18. In 2018, I got the opportunity to work with CHILDLINE through CCDT (Committed Communities Development Trust). I joined as a case manager and intervened in several cases. Earlier, I used to think that children who run away from home or commit a crime are bad children. However, when I got the opportunity to work with them closely, my perception about them changed.

My key responsibility as the project coordinator is to ensure that the intervention of the rescued children is conducted as per the standard operating protocols. Whether it is general diary entry or the medical process or admitting the child in the shelter home, I ensure that everything is done properly.  At the CSMT station, rescue and rehabilitation of the children is done at three levels. At the first level, the outreach worker identifies and rescues the children. In the second level, the case manager intervenes and talks to the child and maintains the documentation. At the third level the project manager and the counselor intervenes in the case.

My work is to ensure that the case manager is coordinating with the outreach worker in their shift.  Moreover, if there is a new member in my team, I give them a proper orientation. I conduct mock sessions on how to spread awareness about CHILDLINE. While intervening a child, how to collect as much information possible from the child within a short time and document it. We conduct team meetings twice in a month. During such meetings, I organise team and capacity building exercises as well as recreational activities like communication games, perception games and games to improve concentration to keep my team motivated.  I also conduct group discussions in which each member of my team share problems faced during their daily duty and work collectively towards finding solutions. During the lockdown many games and discussion sessions were conducted online.

Apart from this, I focus on building rapport with the stakeholders, RPF, GRP, cleaning staff, station director, Ticket checker, shoe polishers and motivating the staff to do the same. We make a monthly activity plan and assign activities to each team member on how to engage the stakeholder, community and children. Preparing the overall strategy, planning and sharing with the staff are also part of my responsibilities. Since CHILDLINE is functioning at the CSMT station since 5 years we have built a good rapport with them. They cooperate with us.

When the lockdown started, CSMT station was completely shut down.  Our desk was functional from May 15^th 2020 with only two staff members. Apart from CHILDLINE, only GRP and RPF were present at the station.  We were coordinating with the GRP.  If any Shramik train was arriving or departing or if they identify a child, the GRP would call and share details with us. We would guide the GRP and they would do the entire process of intervention.  In June and July, GRP rescued and rehabilitated three children at night. At that time, CHILDLINE did not have permission to work at the child help desk at night.  GRP traced the address of two out of three children and restored them with their family. One child whose address could not be traced was admitted to the Mankhurd shelter home. I was coordinating with the GRP throughout the night.

We majorly receive run away cases and lost and found cases at CSMT station.  Reasons for running away from home vary. Sometimes, children run away from home because they have fought at home, face difficulty in studies or parents scold them. Many children run away from home for jobs or simply to roam around metro city like Mumbai.  Last year, major cases of runaway have come from Odisha Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

As a project coordinator, I work closely with my team and apply my experiences as a case manager to develop new strategies to do more outreach and spread awareness about CHILDLINE. When we rescue children, I try to identify their needs and fulfill them by coordinating them with the existing government set up.

Since lot of children arrive at CSMT station via local trains, I have developed strategies to ensure that more children are rescued at the satellite stations. Previously, only 1-2 team members were present at the satellite stations. After December 2019, I have started sending more team members to satellite stations. We conducted awareness sessions with the boot polishers, RPF staff and ticket checkers at the satellite stations. We provided them with all the information and asked them to call 1098, if they come across any vulnerable child. Before lockdown, platforms 1-7 were satellite stations. After lockdown we have extended our services to the satellite stations of Bhyculla, Masjid Bunder and Sandhurst Road. In the coming months, if the frequency of the trains will increase, more children will come via trains, therefore rescue numbers will go up.

Further plans include working with the families of construction workers who live between Sandhurst road and Masjid Bunder. Before lockdown, we had begun working with them on the de-addiction programme. Due to legal issues of the railway authorities, the families had moved back to their villages. Currently, the families have returned from their villages. We are preparing a plan to start the de-addiction programme with them once again. Currently, we are doing the mock sessions on how to conduct awareness programmes and implement them with the community.