Centre's women helpline scheme receives lukewarm response

24x7 Women Helpline 181, which was launched to help women in distress, received a lukewarm response

New Delhi, Nov 25: Centre's 24x7 women helpline scheme has received a lukewarm response, with only 694 complaints being received from just five states since its launch 20 months ago.

Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi while replying to a question in Lok Sabha today said only five states could furnish data about the number of calls received on the helpline.

24x7 Women Helpline 181, which was launched to help women in distress, received a lukewarm response despite the National Crime Record Bureau recording nearly 1,30,000 sexual crimes in the year 2015.

The Scheme for Universalisation of Women Helpline came into effect on April 1, 2015. It envisages 24-hour emergency and non-emergency response to women affected by violence, including sexual offences both in the public and private sphere.

"As women helplines are becoming operational recently, data regarding number of complaints registered/reported have been received only from Chhatisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram and Nagaland," Gandhi said in the written reply.

Out of the five states, Chhatisgarh witnessed maximum number of calls at 561 in the past six months. No details were shared about the number of states which have received funding from the Centre for implementation of the scheme. The Centre has allocated Rs 69.49 Crores under the Nirbhaya Fund for this scheme.

PTI