Unfortunately, we live in a society where even a child with a secure family is not safe enough from abuse and breach of rights. Street children, with no shelter, no family, and no protection are especially vulnerable. And when their rights are denied, which happens quite often, they have no one to complain to, or to help them. There were a large number of services that aimed at protecting children’s rights, but they either remained untapped or were not popularized well enough for the street children to start using them.

The need was primarily to create an outreach for these children. More so the vulnerable sections, such
as girls, children with disability and children with mental illness. The large number of these children, estimated by UNICEF to be around 800,000 in urban India alone, created a need gap for a nationwide helpline to help them live a better life.

CHILDLINE seeks to provide a mechanism to reach out to these children and taking care of their needs. The primary gaps that made creation of CHILDLINE necessary:

Lack of immediate assistance when needed and no access to services
In India unfortunately, a large number of children are denied their right to survival. The need for an emergency outreach service to respond to the immediate needs of children for medical assistance, shelter and protection from abuse was widely and urgently felt.

Lack of awareness about available resources
The lack of awareness amongst children / concerned adults about existing services was a primary reason for these services lacking success. A comprehensive resource directory of existing services, a mandate of CHILDLINE, helps ensure optimum utilization of services.

Lack of coordinated effort between Government and voluntary organizations
A partnership between government and non- government organizations is essential to effectively reach out to children in need. The CHILDLINE strategy therefore elicits and encourages this partnership so essential for a child friendly protection system.

Lack of children’s participation in programmes
Most programmes are not sympathetic to children’s decisions, views and opinions. They remain mere recipients of help without empathizing with their actual needs. This acts as a barrier for building trust amongst children. Children’s participation in all aspects of programme planning, implementation and evaluation is therefore an inbuilt component of the CHILDLINE service.

Child protection not on the national agenda
Since children’s rights are not on the agenda of key government departments and decision-making authorities, child protection issues are mostly left on the backburner and forgotten. This has resulted in
a social setup that is not child friendly and thus leaves children vulnerable to breach of their rights. It is essential to ensure that children’s voices and issues are heard and placed on the agenda of the nation.