Cleared / RiyasThe failure of the Childline India Foundation ( CIF ) in Chennai to identify a Childline collaborative agency for Trichy has resulted in the victims of child abuses going through many inconveniences for more than two months in city.When the Sisters of the Cross Society for Education Development (SOC-SEAD) expressed its unwillingness to continue as the collaborative agency in March 2018, the Childline nodal agency in Bishop Heber College in Trichy was assigned the role of the collaborative agency.Childline collaborative agencies are entrusted with the task of rescuing children from child marriages, child labour, begging, physical abuse and child sexual abuse. From April, 2018, the nodal agency with the help of police and the district social welfare officers has rescued 27 girls from child marriages.In most of the cases, the children were rescued during night hours. In case of the night rescue, the victims should be kept in the collaborative agency’s shelter before producing before the child welfare committee (CWC) the next day. With the absence of such a facility here for the past two months, the children were forced to appear before the committee in the midnight and to stay at the government reception home.Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) S Indiragandhi criticised the foundation for its failure to identify an NGO. "The welfare of children is important. The rescued children have to go through some inconveniences due to the lack of a shelter in Childline. It is the prime duty of CIF to look for a qualified organisation to take care as the Childline collaborative agency. They should have made at least some effort," said Indiragandhi.In the absence of the agency, only one staff in the Childline nodal agency is taking care of the rescue operation. However, reacting to the issue, head of CIF – south region resource centre (SRRC) in Chennai Anuradha Vidyasankar, who is responsible for identifying another agency, washed her hands off the issue. "The ministry of women and child development has to look for the new collaborative agency. I am not in a position to reply if any NGO has applied for it," Anuradha said.

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