Child protection: 21,056 children rescued since 2005 through helpline

LAHORE: Since its inception in May 2005, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) has rescued 21,056 children after being alerted through its helpline 1121.

Located in the Angoori Scheme at Shalimar Link Road, the CPWB deals with providing child protection to those homeless, destitute and victim of various forms of harassment.

Fayyaz Ahmed Butt, a child protection officer and the helpline in charge, said that besides victims and witnesses, the police contacted the bureau in cases of stray children. Butt explained that the helpline teams had been devised into three squads, one each for an eight-hour shift. Each squad, he said, had two to three child protection officers and a police officer who patrolled in the designated area during their shift. While most of the cases reported on hotline are about domestic abuse, cases of lost children and street children were also quite common, he said.

“People find it easy to report street children or beggars. There have also been cases when such children were brought to our office,” Butt said adding, “In cases of domestic violence, the protection officers need to get permission from the Child Protection Court to enter the home of the child being abused.”

The Child Protection Court is headed by a sessions judge.

Butt said that the helpline staff had been trained to identify fake and exaggerated calls. “Over the time, the call centre representatives have grown in experience that helps differentiating between frivolous calls and those requiring action,” he said.

Waqas Ahmed, a helpline worker, said that three to four calls were received per shift.

Explaining how the system works, he said, “The service calls are forwarded to the team that is already in the field. The team then makes a confirmation call to the complainant on the number that was provided to us earlier.”

Rao Khalil Ahmed, the CPWB assistant director, said that the bureau had been under a provincial law in 2004.

He said that the CPWB was launched in Lahore as part of a pilot project that included all child welfare services under one umbrella.

“Now it has started working in all districts of the Punjab. But in other districts, the helpline operates only 12 hours a day,” he added. Khalil said that the participation of the citizens was as important as the efforts of the protection officers and the police to achieve the objectives of preventing child abuse.

CPWB Director General Irum Bukhari said that a campaign will be launched on the sixth anniversary of the bureau to raise awareness among the people.

She said that posters, pamphlets and car stickers will be used as major campaign tools to advertise the service.

According to CPWB record, till August 2010, the bureau’s intervention had benefited 7,776 families.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2011.