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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is setting up Helpline for children in distress at four places in tsunami affected areas. Three of them are being set up in Tamil Nadu at Nagapattanam, Salem and Kanya Kumari and one Helpline is being set up at Pondicherry. The existing Helpline at Chennai is being strengthened. The Ministry has allowed an NGO, ‘PRAYAS’ to explore possibility of setting up Child Helpline and Crisis Intervention Programme at Port Blair. ‘Prayas’ is one of the childline partners of the Ministry under street childline Programme. The child helpline, a toll free telephone service available round the clock will respond to the emergency needs of the children in difficulty and refer them to such services, which they may be in need of.
The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Smt. Meira Kumar is visiting tsunami-affected area from today. During the three-day visit, Smt. Kumar is visiting Chennai, Pondicherry, Cuddalore and Port Blair. Smt. Kumar is accompanied by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Smt. Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan and senior officials of the Ministry. They will have an on the spot assessment of the situation for extending help under various schemes of programmes run by the Ministry especially for children rendered orphans and those disabled by the tsunami fury.
MLD/UB….SJE-46(child helpline)Jan-6
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