A new helpline - 181 introduced for women safety in Tamil Nadu
Posted on: 10/Dec/2018 12:48:10 PM
The central government had introduced an emergency toll-free telephone number 181 for women’s safety a few years ago.
This facility is active only in a few areas such as Delhi, Gujarat, and a few other states. In this scenario, a decision has now been taken to introduce this facility in Tamil Nadu as well.
Accordingly, a call centre was set up in the Chennai Ambattur ‘Amma Call Centre’ for the ‘181’ emergency toll-free call service. This service was being operated on a trial basis. In this situation, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, E. Palanisamy, officially inaugurated the facility of the toll-free emergency contact number ‘181’ for women’s safety. He also inaugurated the call centre set-up for this. Further, the Chief Minister also inaugurated flagging off the propaganda programme on ‘Awareness about banned plastic item usage’.
In order to operate the above emergency helpline service, a squad of 5 advocates, 5 psychologists, and an Information Technology Expert has been deployed. The other important concerned services such as the Police Department, Health Department, and counselling on Law have also been linked with this ‘181’ service. The required help for the calling women will be extended and provided based on the nature of calls being received.
Various complaints/issues such as violence in the family, dowry-based torture, sexual offences, body/mind related health complaints, the various welfare schemes introduced by the government for women, the scholarships offered by schools and colleges,necessary help needed by children and senior citizens, etc., can be called and complained to this toll-free number 181.
It has been ordered to the officials to record all the complaints received in this number. Further, after extending/providing the required to help to the distressed complainant, the officials have been strictly instructed to enquire the condition of the complainant after some gap of time and confirmed that related complaints/problems have been solved.
