Nearly 300 calls a day are received at Mitra 181, the 24-hour helpline that unifies all women’s aid facilities under a single toll-free number.
Run by the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation, the 181 helpline provides women and girls free access to help and services round-the-clock, including during emergencies.
Part of the national women’s helpline 181 for women in distress, it provides assistance to women facing any kind of abuse. It also provides information on government welfare schemes and services and facilities for women. It ensures that callers get help from the nearest police station, hospital, and ambulance service.
The helpline is manned by professionally qualified women who have received special training for this. Based at Technopark, the helpline call centre has 14 employees working three shifts - one manager, three supervisors, three senior call support agents, six call support agents, and one IT administrator. The complaints or requests for help are passed on to the departments concerned for quick action.
The helpline has received 1,91,284 calls since its launch in 2017 till January 15 this year. Of these, 8,917 related to domestic abuse, child abuse, missing women, violence against women, and those for ambulance service, while calls related to legal help and medical counselling come to 24,624. As many as 11,275 calls pertained to doubts over government services. Calls related to harassment during travel, drinking in public, and obscene conversations were also received, call centre manager Divya said.
