Disappearing phone booths spur innovation at India child helpline

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BEATRICE LE BOHEC Inde-economie-social-pauvrete,PREV (FILES) In this October 3, 2011 file photo Indian children eat food at their temporary shelter on the side of the road in Hyderabad. Is it possible to live on 38 centimes of a euro per day in India without being considered poor? India's national economic planning commission backed away from a controversial definition after stirring a storm of protest, without revising the proposed new poverty benchmark in one of the fastest growing economies in the world. AFP PHOTO/Noah SEELAM

MUMBAI: India's much vaunted mobile telecom revolution has caused a lot of anguish at the country's only toll-free emergency helpline for street children and children in distress. 

Set up in 1996 when most calls came from telephone booths and manned public-call offices, Childline has watched uneasily as public landlines have disappeared over the past decade. That has spurred innovation so children can still seek help.