The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights launched its WhatsApp chatbot on Wednesday with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, terming it an important initiative to make governance citizen-friendly.

The chatbot, called ‘Bal Mitra’, is an effort to enable two-way communication between people and the child rights panel. The chatbot will help citizens and the commission to interact more effectively, according to a government statement.

Some of the features of the chatbot include complaint registration, searching information and tracking complaint status, and seeking information on admissions, among others.

Along with providing authentic information on various matters related to children and their rights, the chatbot will also ensure the confidentiality of the matters reported through it.

“Chatbot ‘Bal Mitra’, launched by the DCPCR, is a very important initiative to make governance citizen-friendly. This will serve as a source of authentic information regarding children and their rights,” Sisodia said.

Along with a platform to report any matter related to the protection of child rights, this chatbot will also guide people, especially parents on issues of admissions and education of their children,” he said.

“Good governance involves timely nudges and DCPCR Bal Mitra’ will help us make our governance more effective. It will eliminate the gap of information between the government and citizens,” the deputy chief minister said.

He added that DCPCR has been making various technological interventions regularly to ensure that the government is more accessible to the people in times of need and otherwise.

Before this, the commission had launched the ‘Early Warning System’ which has helped the education department to bring back over 50,000 students to schools and reduce the dropout rate.

Explaining how the chatbot works, DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu said it is an automated responsive application that will assist in information disbursements, help people register complaints and routine communication with complainants among others.

“Those who are not able to access the commission physically or are unable to contact the helpline will be able to register complaints/seek information through this.”

He added that through this initiative the commission aims to reimagine the governance which puts children’s and citizens’ convenience at the front desk.

Kundu further said the panel has taken various technological initiatives, including the digitisation of physical files, and dissemination of child rights-related information through various digital platforms.

“Through all these interventions, the commission aims to be fully digitised soon,” he said.

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