Chennai, 25 December (H.S.) : The Ministry of Women and Child Development has recently introduced a new logo for the Child Help Line ten ninety eight under the Mission Vatsalya scheme. This change comes after more than twenty years of using the previous branding.

The original logo, which featured the phrase Day and Night, has now been replaced with ten ninety eight Child Helpline twenty four seven. While the government aims to modernize the service, several child rights activists and stakeholders have raised concerns that the new terminology is vague and could be unhelpful to children in rural areas.

According to child rights activist A Devanayan, the helpline is a critical life saving service that must be easily understood by all children regardless of their education level or geographical location. He pointed out that the previous wording was simple and translated easily into local languages like Tamil, making it universally accessible.

He expressed that the term twenty four seven is largely urban lingo and may not be immediately understood by younger children or those from marginalized and tribal communities who were familiar with the more descriptive Day and Night format.

Other activists echoed these sentiments, noting that the expression twenty four seven is a technical term that assumes a specific level of numeracy and exposure to modern time based terminology. They fear that first generation learners and children with limited access to formal education might struggle to comprehend the availability of the service.

In response to these concerns, Tamil Nadu officials stated that the change in the logo and the issues raised by the stakeholders would be taken up for further discussion to ensure the service remains accessible to all.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary