NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women’s (DCW) mobile helpline has seen distress calls go up by nearly 75 per cent in a gap of seven months. The round-the-clock helpline service, which received 1,687 calls in January, logged 2,968 calls in July. Overall, as many as 15,647 distress calls were reported in the seven-month period ending on July. Most of these calls received by the 181 helpline number were related to domestic and dowry violence, trafficking, sexual abuse, acid attack and eve-teasing.
“The increase in the number of calls shows the growing awareness among women and other stakeholders about the service. More cases are also being received after a sit-in hunger strike by DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal for demanding an ordinance with the provision of stringent punishment in sexual assaults of minors,” said a DCW official.
Correspondingly, the number of cases addressed by the Commission has gone up with more cases being reported now. Twenty-three mobile helpline vans visited 2,237 callers and heard their grievances in July - up from 1,445 visits in January. A total of 12,731 visits were carried out in these seven months.
Also, the Commission rescued 137 girls and women from trafficking, forced domestic violence, sexual abuse and other situations under the helpline programme. Sixteen cases of human trafficking were dealt with through the mobile helpline service, read the data.
“It is to be noted that these cases were handled only through one DCW programme, Mobile Helpline. There are other options such as mahila panchayat and rape crisis cell which deal with similar cases as well,” the official said.