The plan of merging Childline number 1098 with the national emergency helpline 112 has raised concerns among civil society and NGOs regarding its effectiveness.

Campaign against Child Labour (CACL) in its State level meeting discussed the negative impact of the merger of the CHILDLINE emergency number 1098 with 112. The participants informed that having a helpline number exclusively for the children proved very effective since anyone could contact the number to inform about any child in distress. But since the number will be merged with 112 (the helpline number operated by the Ministry of Home Affairs) people might not feel free to communicate directly with the police regarding the issues of the children.

Ms. Susmita from Save the Children, India informed that they have tried to gather the opinion from other like-minded NGOs on the decision to merge the 1098 helpline number with 112 under Mission Vatsalya Scheme and have shared it at the National level. She informed if needed she can share it with other CACL members.

CACL organises State Level meetings to discuss to review its progress and strengthen its network to eliminate child labour in any form. This State level meeting was organised on 10.10.2022 at the meeting hall of Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre. The meeting was initiated with the opening remarks from Ms. Asha Rosaline Ekka, from Caritas India and the Co-Convenor of CACL as well.

Mr. Biplab Das from SPAN briefed the participants about the meeting agenda including publishing the study on “Quick Status Assessment of Child Labour Situation in West Bengal”, planning for the upcoming Child Rights Week in November, meeting and introducing CACL Network with the new Chairperson of SCPCR, update from the National Level CACL forum on the revised Child Labour Protection and Rehabilitation Bill and Way forward and future planning for the CACL Network.

Giving an update on the Quick Status Assessment of the Child Labour Situation in West Bengal, 2021, Mr. Biplab suggested checking the relevance of the report in connection with the report of the Status of UNCRC implementation in West Bengal, India and the Child Labour situation in West Bengal during the pandemic.

The national forum of CACL is planned for the end of this October 2021 where the discussion points on the revised Child Labour Protection and Rehabilitation Bill will be shared. The other state CACL will share their opinions on the same and the national forum will take a call on presenting it as a private bill in the next session of the Parliament.

Mr. Biplam informed about the review of the celebration of World Day Against Child Labour by CACL state networks at the national forum.

During the discussion, a concern came up regarding the lack of the latest data on child labour, as data collection has not been done for long either by the Government or other stakeholders. Also, the child protection committees (CPCs) though they have been given a lot of responsibilities in the new scheme from MWCD, majority of them are non-functional in their respective areas. Thus keeping in mind these varied issues CACL needs to have a future plan of action.

Ms. Koel Choudhury, a representative from Tdh Germany and Mr. Ashis from Tdh Swiss emphasised prioritizing and setting specific timelines for achieving the goals discussed in the meeting.

The next point from the participants was the visibility of CACL in the districts. Everyone agreed that CACL is more focussing on Kolkata and its surroundings than on the districts. Ms. Asha also added her concern regarding the same for the district-level partners of Caritas India and also the members of CACL. Thus, everybody agreed that dissemination of the concept and activities of CACL has to be done at every corner of the districts through the partners.

Next, the participants discussed the PENCIL portal initiated by the Central Government and how to make it active. Also, the discussion was done to approach the WBCPCR and submit a report on CACL and its achievements, after collecting the required data from the district level.

After this Mr. Biplab informed everyone on the National Coordination Committee of CACL and its activity during the pandemic.

Ms. Moumita representative from Save the Children, India, suggested some points to organise a district-level campaign in the upcoming days including sharing about CACL, its national, state and district context, district mapping, involving other stakeholders, preparation and submission of memorandum to the DM and planning long term strategy for CACL.

The members presented a plan to organise a virtual meeting with all CACL members across the state with a special focus on the members having partners at the district level to plan a day-long workshop in the month of November and chalk out the strategic directions of CACL West Bengal chapter in sync with the plans of the national committee of the network in terms of the challenges and emerging opportunities related to the issues of child labour. The virtual meeting will be held on 20th of October. Mr. Biplab proposed that like-minded organisations who are working with the same issues in various districts and are not a member of CACL may also join the programme at the district level. This will help the network to reach out to the district-based members and penetrate into the distant corners of the state with the vision of CACL.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of joining the three layers of CACL Network (district, state and national) in the upcoming days.

The CACL members joined various organisations working towards ensuring child rights and child protection in West Bengal. Save the children, SPAN, Lake Garden WCDG, Nari-o-Sishu Kalyan Kendra, Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre, GGBK, DRCSC, Development Professionals, MARFAT, TdH Swiss, TdH Germany to name a few.

On behalf of Caritas India, Ms. Asha Rosaline Ekka, Programme lead- Child Development West Bengal, and Ms. Abhishikta Bandyopadhyay, Programme Extension Associate, Campaign and Protection (Child Development) had participated in the meeting.