"Didi, can you come? There's been a fight at the station."
"Didi, can you help? The police have battered Raju."
And a CHILDLINE volunteer would get up and rush out to
where a street child was waiting. On one of those dashes across the sleeping
city of Mumbai , an idea was born.
What street children in Mumbai needed was a helpline, their own
helpline.
In 1996, Mumbai launched CHILDLINE, the country's first toll-free tele-helpline
for street children in distress. As of March 2011, total of 21 Million
calls since inception have been serviced by CHILDLINE service and operates in 172 cities/districts
in 30 States and UTs through its network of 415 partner
organisations across India.
