Coming soon: Tollfree helplines

Delhi is set to become India’s first city to introduce a state-run, toll-free helpline for government schoolteachers and students. Scheduled to become operational in two months, the helpline is designed to provide support to tackle day-to-day educational crises in schools.

“The aim is to create a standardised module of state support to government schoolteachers and principals on specific classroom and educational issues,” said Reena Ray, Principal Secretary, Education. “It will also enable students to report abuse by teachers.”

Dedicated telephone sets will be installed in each of the 940 schools of the Delhi government and the New Delhi Municipal Council in the first phase, and in 1,800 schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in the second phase, Ray added. These will connect directly to the helpline.

The helpline comes not a minute too late. Reports of student abuse by teachers continue to make the rounds, even though Ray says that no case has been reported this year.

To get the helpline going, the government has identified an NGO which will identify and train other NGOs and specialists from the fields of education, child management and conflict resolution.