Rickshaw Drivers and Childline Will Work Together for Children’s Safety

The safety of children has become a priority in the town of Thiruvananthapuram; with a smart and swift decision, Rickshaw drivers and Childline will work together from now on.

 
Childline, India’s first foundation providing help for street children who need it, has gone above and beyond to do so since 1996. The toll-free number can be called day and night, and according to Childline, since their first day in operation, they have had 36 million calls until today. The service works in a whopping 366 cities and towns throughout India, through 700 partner organizations.
From now on, auto rickshaw drivers will be among those partners: according to Times of India, on the International Day for Missing Children Observance, the workers of Childline did a sensitizing training for rickshaw drivers in the city to raise awareness. During the orientation class, some 60 auto rickshaw chauffeurs were added to a WhatsApp group called ‘Auto Suhruthukkalkoppam’ which translates to With Our Auto Friends. Apart from the newly added drivers, the group includes police officers and Childline workers.

Jobi Kondoor, district coordinator at Childline, said the following about the initiative: “’Our main aim is to utilize the service of the rickshaw drivers not just in tracking down missing children, but also save children, who are estranged from homes. We sensitized them about the functions of Childline and also told them whom to contact when they spot a child under suspicious circumstances.”
During the training, Childline workers also advised on how to communicate with assumed runaway children. The reason why Childline is targeting rickshaw drivers is simple, as Jobi said: most children who run away from home use rickshaw as their primary mode of transport.
 

 
P. Prakash, Thampanoor sub-inspector was the one who established the program told the Times of India: “The Whatsapp group will help in prompt sharing of information, which in turn will result in effective intervention from the part of law enforcers.” He also added that in many cases, auto rickshaw drivers turned out to be a much better network for surveillance than public cameras.

Recently, the concept of using the help of rickshaw chauffeurs has proven to be a good instinct; a six-year-old boy has been reunited with his family thanks to a perceptive rickshaw driver.
For the time being, the initiative has started in the Thampanoor area of the city, but in time, the programme will be expanded to cover the whole town. Maybe next time you join the Rickshaw Challenge, you can keep an eye out, too!