When Nandana rang up the helpline of ‘Chiri’, a novel project run by the Kerala Police to help children in distress during the pandemic, she hardly expected a solution to reach her within a matter of hours.
But that was exactly what happened. The despondent 14-year-old Standard 9 student from Ayyampuzha in Ernakulam district had called the helpline on Thursday morning to share how her online education was being marred by the lack of a smartphone.
While she was able to follow classes through televised sessions thanks to a television set donated by the panchayat with the help of local residents and some voluntary organisations, she was neither able to receive notes or submit assignments, mostly done over WhatsApp, without a smartphone.
Her family could hardly afford a smartphone either, as her father Vinu, a casual worker, remains confined to bed after being diagnosed with a nerve disorder nine months ago. And this forced her mother Nisha to give up her job at a local bakery to be by her husband’s side all the time.
“I saw the telephone number of Chiri in a newspaper and decided to tell them about my issue,” Nandana said. The helpline received the call on Thursday morning and conveyed the message to the Ayyampuzha police station. Hardly an hour later, cops from the station came calling at her home.
“It was the first such case we attended within our station limits under the Chiri project. We found her circumstances to be very trying and her problem genuine,” said Thrideep Chandran, Station House Officer, Ayyampuzha. Moved by her plight, Mr. Chandran bought a mobile phone out of his own pocket and handed it over to her in the evening itself.
Chiri was launched in July with the explicit aim of providing psychological succour to children hit hard by the pandemic. It makes available the services of the network of Student Police Cadets and a panel of psychiatrists and counsellors.