Organization : Social Welfare Assam
Service Name : Universalisation Of Women Helpline Scheme
Applicable State : Assam
Country: India
Website : https://socialwelfare.assam.gov.in/information-services/woman-welfare-schemes
Guidelines : https://www.statusin.in/uploads/35965-WomenHelpline.pdf
Social Welfare Assam Universalisation Of Women Helpline
** Women Helpline (WHL) will be integrated with One Stop Centre Scheme (OSC) under which one OSC shall be established in every State/UT to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof. Women affected by violence and in need of redressal services will be referred to OSC through WHL.
Related : Social Welfare Assam Ujjwala New Scheme : www.statusin.in/35960.html
Introduction
1.1 The Scheme of Universalisation of Women Helpline is intended to provide 24 hours immediate and emergency response to women affected by violence through referral (linking with appropriate authority such as police, One Stop Centre, hospital) and information about women related government schemes programs across the country through a single uniform number.
1.2 Under the WHL Scheme, the States/UTs will utilise or augment their existing women helplines through a dedicated single national number. Department of Telecommunication, Government of India has allocated short code 181 to all States/UTs which is being used by some States/UTs such as Delhi, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh as Women Helpline. Under this Scheme, States/UTs need to adopt this short code 181 as Women Helpline (WHL).
** It is envisaged that this number would be compatible with all the existing telecommunication channels whether providing post/pre paid mobile or landline services through any public or private network i.e. GSM, CDMA, 3G, 4G etc. All the state/ district/ city level helplines whether private or public would be integrated with this women helpline.
Purpose Of The Implementation Guidelines
2.1 These Guidelines have been developed to support all stakeholders/agencies who would be involved in implementing the Scheme.
** These are also intended to serve as an effective reference manual for officials at the National and State/ Union Territory (UT) levels for policy guidance and monitoring. The Guidelines narrate the services to be provided under the Scheme as well as steps in implementation. It also lays down monitoring and reporting formats to be used at different levels.
Objectives
3.1 The objectives of the Scheme are :
** To provide toll-free 24-hours telecom service to women affected by violence seeking support and information.
** To facilitate crisis and non-crisis intervention through referral to the appropriate agencies such as police/Hospitals/Ambulance services/District Legal Service Authority (DLSA)/Protection Officer (PO)/OSC.
** To provide information about the appropriate support services, government schemes and programmes available to the woman affected by violence, in her particular situation within the local area in which she resides or is employed.
Target Group
4.1 Any woman or girl facing violence within public or private sphere of life or seeking information about women related programmes or schemes.
Location
5.1 The WHL will be universalised through short code 181 number by augmenting/using the infrastructure of existing helplines working at the State/UT level. States/UTs will have the option of locating the Helpline Centre in capital or in any other city as per their requirement. However, while selecting the location of the WHL due care needs to be taken by the States/UTs for its integration with the OSC.
Roles And Responsibilities
The service providers at the WHL will have following responsibilities :
Helpline Manager
a. The Helpline Manager will be in charge for the overall smooth functioning of WHL.
b. She will ensure prompt and meaningful response towards every call received at the Helpline.
c. She will directly intervene in heinous cases in collaboration with state agencies.
d. She will be responsible to monitor and intervene (if required) in any ongoing calls. e. She will supervise each case, take it to a logical conclusion and later follow up with the aggrieved woman.
f. She will ensure effective convergence with concerned agencies/institutions.
g. She will facilitate redressal of issues related to non responsiveness of State agencies/institutions in collaboration with Director, WCD.
h. She will be responsible for making schedules for the team and managing the team in such a way that the Helpline is up and active 24 hours a day seven day a week.
Supervisor
a. She will ensure that all calls are being attended promptly and every call has been taken to its logical conclusion by the responder, as early, as possible.
b. She will conduct regular follow up of the cases and talk with concerned authorities and departments as per the requirement of the case.
c. She will provide guidance to team members, manages the team and makes daily report to the Helpline Manager for further follow up.
d. She will support the Helpline Manager in capacity building of the team.
e. She will note down the shortcomings in call handling, if any, and direct the concerned responder for further corrective action with necessary guidance.
f. She will brief/de-brief all responders before start of the duty shift and at the time of closing of the duty shift.
Senior Call Responder
a. She will advise women referred by call responders.
b. She will support the Supervisor in weekly follow up with the aggrieved woman asking about the quality of service provided.
c. She will support the Supervisor in gathering weekly update on any ongoing case being under police investigation or under trial.
d. She will support the Supervisor in report writing process
e. In case of any contingencies and absence of Supervisor, she will manage the floor.
Call Responder
a. She will attend the calls; do primary referrals, does data entry and forward serious cases to Supervisor and cases which need first point counselling to Senior Call Responder.
b. She will provide information about the Government Schemes and programmes related to women empowerment.
c. She will provide all the assistance to women applying for any such above mentioned scheme or programme and guide them through the process to be adopted for accessing the same.
d. She will help the Supervisor in attending missed calls.
e. She will be responsible for other work as assigned by the Helpline Manager.
Modalities Of The Scheme
Accessing Women Helpline
8.1.1 The Women Helpline will be accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week to any woman or girl suffering violence or in distress in the following manner:
** Telephone – landlines, mobile phones through calls, SMS/text messaging, mobile apps and fax messages;
** Internet – emails, web-posts, web-interface, social networking sites i.e. web page, facebook, twitter, mygov etc;
8.1.2 WHL will be sensitive to the needs of persons who are hearing and speech impaired or people with disability. It will have provision to locate/ trace the number from which a call has been received.
Documentation
8.2.1 A web enabled Management Information System (MIS) would be developed to provide a user friendly and easily accessible one single portal giving due regard to the confidentiality of women affected by violence. When an aggrieved woman approaches the WHL her personal and case details will be fed into this system as per the prescribed format and a Unique ID Number would be generated through which the case would be followed by the authorities from district to central level.
Awareness Generation and Outreach Activities
8.3.1 WHL will undertake outreach and awareness generation activities to inform and encourage women to utilize its service in case of need. For women to contact WHL, they first need to know about the service and understand what it can do for them. Hence, outreach and awareness-generation activities are therefore key components of a WHL.