Smriti Irani Asks Meta To Work With Child Helpline For Emergencies

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Monday asked social media major Meta to work in sync with the child helpline to provide quick relief to children in an emergency situation.

Speaking at Digital Surakhsa Summit, Ms Irani expressed concern over videos being made in unsafe circumstances by social media users and asked Meta to work with institutions like NIMHANS to run mental health programmes.

"The government, in collaboration with all state governments, runs a helpline 1098 which is the child helpline. But, there is absolutely no symmetry between this helpline and that helpline. Some kids will presume that your helpline was the helpline to call when they are in mortal danger," Ms Irani said.

Meta at present has a tie-up with Rati Foundation to provide help to children.

The minister said during an emergency situation, a child calls an NGO which is obviously not equipped in order to give an immediate response.

"There are these gaps that still need to be sewn over. I'm mindful of the fact that Meta has never digressed on administrative responsiveness. But those are the issues...that need to get addressed. Push the 1098 number to say call this if you are in mortal danger," Ms Irani said.

Ms Irani said NGOs are not equipped to provide quick response during an emergency situation.

"If we want to service the needs of child safety with alacrity, we need to work with agencies that have a quick response time...The government and agencies in law and order are committed to responding with speed to people in danger," Ms Irani said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)