Staff Reporter

Shillong, Aug 14: The social welfare department has decided to sanction 14 new posts to ensure the effective functioning of the child helpline service in the state. 

Informing this today, minister in-charge social welfare Paul Lyngdoh said, "I am happy to announce that we have been able to strengthen the child helpline service (1098) by sanctioning 14 new posts, which will help to make the service more effective." 

He said that until very recently, the child helpline service has been manned by a lone child helpline administrator. 

"It is a major achievement for the department because the service was activated in 2019, there was just a lone staff and you can imagine the success rate of such a service," he said. 

The 14 new posts include 1 IT supervisor, 10 call operators, 1 multi-purpose staff and 2 security guards. 

"Now, that we have 10 call operators, it means the service will be faster and complaints, if any, can reach through these call operators at the earliest," he said while adding that "with this, we will really be able to come up and help those distress persons in a bigger way."

Meanwhile, Lyngdoh further informed that the department has also activated the women helpline '181'.

"I request you to visit the directorate office because we have installed the latest gadgets and machines which will help to track calls and also track the response system and also there is a dedicated website which has been activated in order to enable this service to be at its peak," he added.