9 lakh calls attended since 2017; 37000 families provided help
Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, June 19: Carrying out the herculean task of providing a helping hand to people since 2017, the CRPF’s ‘Madadgaar’ Helpline has completed over 5 years of operation in J&K during which nearly 9 lakh calls were attended while 37000 people hailing from various districts of the Union Territory were provided the necessary assistance.
The helpline was started in June 2017, initially, to provide the necessary medical help to the people across J&K, however, with time, the areas in which the assistance was provided, expanded, and more and more people with varied needs were helped.
The officials told Excelsior that medical assistance which includes medicines, surgeries, doctor consultations, ambulance, etc has been provided to 6385 families since 2017 after they rang up the helpline which is being operated in close coordination with the CRPF battalions across J&K.
While the helpline is operated from the Inspector General CRPF’s office from Pantha Chowk which houses the control center of the helpline, the necessary help is ensured to people through the CRPF battalions stationed across J&K.
Since 2017, under the helpline, 1081 units of blood were also donated to patients in an emergency while 131 cases of prosthetic implants and wheelchairs were provided to disabled persons.
In the last 5 years, 150 skilled youth were assisted to set up their own business while more than 500 students were assisted with books for competitive exams, stationery items, scholarships and sponsorships for tournaments, etc.
Apart from the medical help, more than 450 women have been provided with the assistance in cases of domestic violence, and eve-teasing through the helpline, while more than 3000 families were also helped during natural calamities, and harsh weather while as help was also provided to the for accessing benefits under various Government schemes.
“During the period, food and ration assistance were provided to 9413 families apart from 10,000 cases of assistance to public during COVID-19 pandemic and over 3000 cases of assistance to Yatris and tourists,” Assistant Commandant, Gul Junaid Khan, who is the in-charge of the helpline, told Excelsior.
He said that, initially, the idea was to start a helpline number so that the people could reach out to us for necessary help whenever needed. “Then as we started to get the calls, the majority of them were for medical help which we provided to a greater extent,” he said.
As the helpline kept working and providing help to people on various fronts, the helpline later got the Corpus Fund from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and with that, the help provided by the helpline was also extended to various areas.
“We have been trying to help people in various ways and as of now, the assistance being provided has extended to several areas. We now have a broad base of areas where we are helping people, particularly the livelihood assistance,” Khan said.
What is more interesting here to note is that through the CRPF’s ‘Madadgaar’ Helpline, several people have also been guided in the process of availing the benefits of existing Government schemes, wherever applicable.
“What we have seen in many cases that people who require any assistance, there usually remains a Government scheme in place aimed at helping such people; however, due to the lack of awareness, such people are not able to get benefited from the same; we have guided several people in this direction too and because of our involvement, the process of availing the benefits has become easy for people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the officials said that to commemorate 5 years of operations of CRPF Madadgaar Helpline, a distribution drive will be carried out in which 50 families will be assisted with medicines, livelihood assistance to skilled youth, sports kits for students, wheelchairs at 5 locations across Kashmir, Anantnag, Srinagar, Kupwara, Sumbal & Awantipora.
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