Child helpline & POCSO e-Box

 Five years after the brutal New Delhi gang rape highlighted the crisis of women’s safety in India, two more gruesome cases—involving children this time—have shown that solving the problem will need a lot more than just laws, writes qz.com. 

Another report says a "deeply, deeply disturbed" women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi intends to seek death penalty for rapists of children below 12 years of age. There is a growing groundwell of public anger and angst at attempts to protect accused in gory gang rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, and as well as in a gangrape incident in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. 

Given the precarious state of girl children, there is a need to sensitise them on a toll-free childline and POCSO e-Box Information. This was suggested by Maneka Gandhi suggested it to the Union HRD Minister. 

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has published the information regarding Childline (1098) – 24x7 Helpline for children and POCSO E-box on the back side of the front cover of all the course books from class 6th to class 12th.  It is hoped that the information is expected to reach approximately 26 crore school students in 15 lakh schools. As a result, it is expected that the children will be more aware and they may use the Child Helpline or POCSO E-box, in case of any distress. The easy accessibility of this information in the hand of children themselves may also deter the prospective abusers, at least to a reasonable extent. 

CHILDLINE 1098 is a national 24-hour toll free emergency phone service for children in distress. The Helpline for Children is currently operational in 412 locations across the country. Childline received 1.45 crore calls during April 2016-March 2017 and more than 78 lakh calls during April -November 2017.The Child line provides assistance to children in distress either by way of tele-counselling or physical rescue.  POCSO e-Box is an online complaint management system for easy and direct reporting of sexual offences against children and timely action against and timely action against the offenders under POCSO Act 

2012. POCSO e-Box was launched by the Minister for Women and Child Development on 26.8.2016. Link of the POCSO e-Box is : http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/user_complaints.php