Mysuru: The District Child Helpline (1098) received more than double the number of complaints between April 2025 and Feb 2026 compared to the previous two years. Complaints related to child marriages are one of the major complaints received at the Child Helpline, which is a toll-free facility.Meanwhile, in these three years, the district is in the third position in terms of complaints registered at the Child Helpline in the state.According to the data furnished by women and child welfare minister Laxmi R Hebbalkar to a question raised by the Mysuru-Mandya MLC Madhu G Madegowda, between April 2025 and Feb 2026, as many as 1,070 complaints were registered with the Child Helpline.As per the data, between Sept 2023 and March 2024, 453 complaints were registered with child helpline. All the complaints were resolved. Between April 2024 and March 2025, 439 cases were registered and all the cases were resolved.As per the data shared by the minister, in this period, 691 cases were related to child marriage, with 277 complaints between April 2025 and March 2026. In 2024-25, 279 complaints were related to child marriages.According to quasi-judicial child welfare committee (CWC) member Mahadeva Kote, the helpline receives complaints mainly related to child marriages, followed by cases related to POCSO. “Today we are receiving complaints related to behavioural issues too. Complaints from children of single parents, child labour were also received at the 1098,” he said.E Dhananjaya, former member of CWC, Mysuru, and KV Stanly, co-founder of Odanadi Seva Samsthe, attributed the increase in the number of cases to increased awareness levels about the child helpline among the children and the society. “Earlier, there was not much awareness about the 1098. But today it has become very popular everywhere. So, the children are lodging complaints related to the issues that matter to them,” they observed.
