The state child rights’ watchdog has set up a helpdesk to address the issues of child marriage and child trafficking, which it says have increased with Covid-19 and Amphan pushing families into extreme poverty.

The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights has on its website www.wbcpcr.org posted three mobile numbers, which one can call to lodge a complaint or pass on information related to child marriage and trafficking.

The numbers are 983630300, 9830056006, 9836078780. One can also send a text or WhatsApp message to any of the numbers.

Commission chairperson Ananya Chatterjee Chakrabarti said since the launch of the helpdesk on June 2, they had been receiving hundreds of calls about child marriage and child trafficking.

“Bengal has been struck by a double whammy — the pandemic and the May 20 cyclone — pushing families into extreme poverty. In such a situation, child marriage and child trafficking are bound to rise,” said Chatterjee Chakraborty.

Sukanya Sarbadhikari, a teacher of sociology at Presidency University, said history had it that whenever a calamity struck, instances of child marriage and trafficking started rising. The 1943 Bengal famine, too, had resulted in a rise of both.

Another official of the commission said the complaints were coming from South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas, Nadia, Malda and Murshidabad — hotspots for child marriage and child trafficking. “The jolt of Covid-19 and Amphan has only aggravated the situation,” she said.

Anup Sinha, a former professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, said it was not surprising that the public health scare and the havoc caused by the cyclone had triggered a surge in child marriage and trafficking.

According to him, at a time like this, the role of the government was crucial in terms of providing financial help to the families so that they could survive the poverty, which was at the heart of the problems.

Sinha said the panchayats should reach out to families to find out how help could be delivered under various schemes. “If there is no alternative before the families, they will again surrender before traffickers or get the daughters married off,” he said.

“The department for women and child development and social welfare that oversees the child rights’ watchdog, must work in close cooperation with the panchayat department, to work out the welfare schemes for helping the families. Mere prevention would not work,” he said.