The Women and Child Development Department’s SMS and WhatsApp complaint system for women and children in distress is set to become a permanent feature.
Women and Child Development (WCD) Director T.V. Anupama said a proposal would be sent to the government for retaining the service beyond the COVID-19 lockdown.
The SMS/WhatsApp service (9400080292) has received 136 complaints so far. A chunk of them related to domestic violence — 81. The number of complaints related to other problems experienced by women such as cyber safety, neighbours, or other abuse came to 22. Other complaints by women related to land, money, etc. — 17.
Eleven complaints related to children. There were five complaints from outside the State or the country.
24-hour service
The 24-hour service was launched in April to supplement the Mitra 181 women’s helpline. Ms. Anupama said that women protection officers of the department had expressed concern that with families cloistered together during the lockdown, many women who felt insecure would not have the freedom to make calls to the police or other authorities.
They mooted an SMS or WhatsApp service that was easier for women to make complaints. The idea was to reach out to women whom the Mitra helpline could not cover.
Going by the messages received through SMS or WhatsApp, their surmise was correct, Ms. Anupama said.
The system received domestic violence complaints from other States — in one case where a Malayali was involved, the department contacted the complainant’s family and through women protection officers concerned intervened in the matter. In the case of non-Malayalis, complaints received were sent to the WCD departments of the States concerned.
Three women living abroad also made use of the service.
Comfortable
Many women also gave the feedback that they felt more comfortable sending their complaints on WhatsApp rather than through phone calls owing to various reasons. “We realised there was space for such a helpline, and that is the reason behind the decision not to limit it to the lockdown,” said Ms. Anupama.
She acknowledged that the number of cases received on the SMS/WhastApp service could be much lesser compared to Mitra 181, which had many advantages. However, those unable to call up 181 could rely on the SMS/WhatsApp helpline for help, she said.