Women’s helpline received 76,000 prank calls in 2014

BENGALURU: This helpline was launched to help women in distress but over the past one year it's caused much stress to its operators. The toll free number of Vanitha Sahayavani was flooded by lakhs of calls in 2014 but not all were genuine. It was frequently misused by men wanting to hear a female voice. Of the 2.31 lakh total calls made to the 24x7 helpline in 2014, 75,951 were prank calls and over 71,429 were wrong numbers. Most of the prank calls were made during the night. "These calls are mostly from places like Raichur, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and other north Karnataka districts. They're usually made from coin-operated phone booths, so it's difficult to track the callers," said a woman cop at the helpline. Six women cops work in three shifts at the call centre along with counsellors. Helpline employees have made note of the numbers from which they repeatedly received prank calls "We've had instances of men saying they're unable to sleep and hence they're calling. But tracking these calls is a problem. When we dial back, either there is no response or the caller is not available. It's a sheer waste of time and energy," said Rani Shetty, coordinator of the helpline. Every time the helpline conducts outreach programmes or the number is published by media, the number of prank calls swells. "Pranksters have no clue what we do here. We are awake at night only to ensure we don't miss any genuine call," rued a woman cop. Few complaints, more pranks Total no. of calls made: 2.31 lakh Wrong numbers: 71,429 Prank calls: 75,951 District calls: 69,481 (to be referred to cops of other districts) Information related: 7,588 Family problems: 3,166 Domestic violence: 838 Harassment: 847 Public alerts: 342 Teasing: 223 Rescue calls: 129 Quarrel complaints: 658 Cheating complaints: 464 -TOI