Steps
Each box is one situation. To see only yours, answer the questions above.
1.
If the child is in danger right now, call 112.
2.
For any child in difficulty, call 1098. It is free and works day and night. A child can also call it themselves.
3.
A call to 1098 goes to the state's Women and Child Development control room. In an emergency they pass it to 112; otherwise to the Child Helpline unit at your District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), which links the child to emergency help and then to longer-term care.
Sexual abuse or assault of a child (or a fear it will happen) / Beating, cruelty, neglect or threats / A child made to work, or to beg / A child marriage
4.
The AP Police Shakthi team works on the safety of women and children. You can call 112, or send a message to Shakthi WhatsApp on 7993485111.
💻 Shakthi WhatsApp (AP Police)
Sexual abuse or assault of a child (or a fear it will happen)
5.
The POCSO Act says anyone who knows that a sexual offence against a child has happened, or fears it may happen, must tell the police: the local police station or the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU). Not telling them is an offence; this punishment does not apply to a child.
🏛️ Local police station or Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU)
6.
Anyone who gives this information in good faith faces no civil or criminal liability for it.
7.
The police must write your report down, give it an entry number and read it back to you. If a child gives the report, it must be written in simple language the child understands. The officer who takes it must tell you their name, designation, address and phone number, and the details of their supervising officer. You get a copy of the FIR free of cost.
8.
If the child needs urgent medical care, take them to the nearest hospital; the police too must take the child there within 24 hours. No hospital may ask for police or court papers before giving emergency care.
9.
In a POCSO case the medical examination is done even if no FIR has been registered yet. For a girl it must be done by a woman doctor. A parent, or someone the child trusts, is present during it.
10.
The child's statement is taken at the child's home or at a place the child chooses, as far as possible by a woman police officer of at least sub-inspector rank. The officer must not be in uniform. No child may be kept at a police station at night for any reason.
11.
If the person suspected lives in the same household as the child, the police must bring the child before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours. The Committee decides within 3 days whether the child should be moved out of the home, and takes the child's own view into account.
🏛️ District Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
12.
No media report may reveal the child's identity: name, address, photograph, family details, school, neighbourhood or anything else that would identify the child.
13.
The child's family has the right to a lawyer of their choice. If they cannot afford one, the Legal Services Authority provides a lawyer; the Child Welfare Committee also recommends legal aid to the District Legal Services Authority.
🏛️ District Legal Services Authority
14.
If you receive or come across sexual images or videos involving a child, report them to the police or on the cybercrime.gov.in portal. Give the details of the device it was seen on, the device it came from, and the app or site where it appeared.
💻 National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
Beating, cruelty, neglect or threats
15.
When the person a child lives with injures, abuses, exploits, neglects or threatens the child, the law treats the child as a "child in need of care and protection". Anyone can bring such a child before the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC); the child can also go on their own. The child must be brought within 24 hours, not counting travel time.
🏛️ District Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
⏱️ within 1 days · Within 24 hours, not counting travel time
Not confirmed: The official pages we read do not give the address or phone number of your district's Child Welfare Committee or District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) in Andhra Pradesh (the Women Development and Child Welfare website did not open). Ask 1098.
A child made to work, or to beg
16.
A child who is working against the labour laws, begging or living on the street is also, in law, a "child in need of care and protection". The child helpline, the police, a labour inspector or any citizen can bring the child before the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours.
🏛️ District Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
⏱️ within 1 days · Within 24 hours, not counting travel time
Not confirmed: The official pages we read do not give the address or phone number of your district's Child Welfare Committee or District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) in Andhra Pradesh (the Women Development and Child Welfare website did not open). Ask 1098.
Beating, cruelty, neglect or threats / A child made to work, or to beg
17.
At the police station, ask for the officer who deals with children (the Child Welfare Police Officer). The law provides that every police station may designate an officer of at least assistant sub-inspector rank for this.
A child marriage
18.
In law, a marriage is a child marriage if the girl is under 18 or the boy is under 21.
• A child marriage
• Not yet (it is being arranged)
19.
If you know a child marriage is about to happen, tell 1098 or 112 at once.
20.
Stopping child marriages is the duty of the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer (CMPO). Under the Andhra Pradesh rules the District Collector is the district CMPO; the RDO or Sub-Collector, the ICDS project officer (CDPO), the Tahsildar, the ICDS Supervisor and, in the village, the Panchayat Secretary are CMPOs too. Whether you tell them by letter, phone or e-mail, the officer must act at once and must keep your name confidential.
🏛️ Child Marriage Prohibition Officer (CMPO): the Tahsildar's office, the ICDS project office or the village Panchayat Secretary
Not confirmed: This list of officers is from the 2012 rules (G.O.Ms.No.13). The official pages we read do not say whether Andhra Pradesh has changed it since (the Women Development and Child Welfare website did not open). Ask at the Tahsildar's office or on 1098 who the CMPO is for your village.
21.
Anyone who knows a child marriage is being arranged can complain to a Judicial Magistrate of the first class (in cities, a Metropolitan Magistrate). The Magistrate issues an order (an injunction) forbidding the marriage; in an urgent case an interim order can be given without notice. A marriage held against that order is void from the start.
🏛️ Court of the Judicial Magistrate of the first class or the Metropolitan Magistrate
22.
A child at risk of being married before the legal age is also, in law, a "child in need of care and protection". Anyone can bring the child before the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours.
🏛️ District Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
⏱️ within 1 days · Within 24 hours, not counting travel time
Not confirmed: The official pages we read do not give the address or phone number of your district's Child Welfare Committee or District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) in Andhra Pradesh (the Women Development and Child Welfare website did not open). Ask 1098.
• A child marriage
• Yes, it has taken place
23.
Only the person who was a child at the time of the marriage can ask the district court (the Family Court, where there is one) to annul it. If they are still a minor, the petition is filed through a guardian or next friend together with the CMPO. It can be filed at any time before two years have passed since they came of age.
🏛️ District court (the Family Court, where there is one)
I have found a child who is alone, lost or abandoned
24.
If you find, take charge of or are handed a child who seems lost or abandoned (or an orphan with no family support), you must within 24 hours, not counting travel time, tell 1098, the nearest police station, the Child Welfare Committee or the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), or hand the child to a registered child care institution. Not doing so is an offence.
📞 By phone
⏱️ within 1 days · Within 24 hours, not counting travel time
25.
A child (under 18) is entitled to free legal help. Contact your District Legal Services Authority, or call 15100.
🏛️ District Legal Services Authority (Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority)
💰 Fee: Free