CHAPTFJi-S

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER-in

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Introduction:
Research is defined as a systematized effort to gain new knowledge. It is an
academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense. It
refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciation of the problem,
formulating hypotheses, collecting of facts or data analyzing the facts and
reaching certain conclusions either in for a solution towards the concerned
problem or in certain generalizations for some theoretical formulation.

The present study is systematic research attempt to describe the CHILDLINE

project in general in India and Andhra Pradesh and specific to Vijayawada in
Krishna District to analysis its data, and asses the services render by
CHILDLINE, Vijayawada at Child Rescue Shelter and study the impact of
CHILDLINE among target group and support and allied system systems.

The present study is undertaken on CHILDLINE Vijayawada in Krishna

District of Andhra Pradesh. CHILDLINE is defined as a 24 hour emergency
helpline for children in need of care and protection, has accepted the challenge
of reaching out to every such child that needs external immediate help in terms
of positive social intervention when in crisis, As if by definition, it is a network
based activity and therefore best suited to meet a very crucial need in
prevention of child being abused and in reaching out to those who have fallen
victims to the horrific plight.1

2. The Selection of the topic for Study:

CHILDLINE Vijayawada is working in the city of Vijayawada, Krishna district
of Andhra Pradesh for nine years and has reached over twenty four thousand

1 Ms Priti Patkar & Mr. Praveen Patkar, Child Trafficking: issues and concerns; page 15.

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and odd children who are in distress. How ever there is no evidence till now of
any assessment or study has done, on the demographic profile of children
calling the centre, patterns of calls, interventions undertaken impact on the
society etc. Hence a study on CHILDLINE Vijayawada- a Case study in
Krishna District Andhra Pradesh from 2001-2009) is chosen for the study.

3. Research Design:
Case Study Method is the primary design adopted for the present study
supported by qualitative & quantitative analysis of data and descriptive design.
The researcher adopted the case study method in order to study the project of
CHILDLINE in Vijayawada city and understand and evaluate its activities. The
qualitative analysis method is adopted to analyze the calls received by
CHILDLINE Vijayawada from children as well as from the public, to
understand the nature of calls made and service rendered, intervention
strategies adopted and to explore whether CHILDLINE reaches out to all the
children irrespective of gender, age, caste and social status.

The researcher has undertaken two surveys by adopting snowball and random
sampling methods to asses the services of CHILDLINE at Rescue Shelter in
Vijayawada city of Krishna District and the impact of CHILDLINE services
among the children as well as allied systems respectively.

4. Study Area: The researcher undertook the following study area.

Study-1: CHILDLINE Services at Rescue Shelter at CHILDLINEs Child
Rescue Shelter, Vijayawada.
Study-2: The operational area of CHILDLINE-Vijayawada in urban and rural
areas of Vijayawada city in Krishna district.

5. Selection of Sample:
Study-1: Analysis on the Services of CHILDLINE at Child Rescue Shelter is
a quantitative Survey and the snow ball method was adopted. To collect the

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information about CHILDLINE services at Rescue Shelter, the researcher met

children at Child Rescue Shelter of CHILDLINE who have resided for
minimum of 2 or more days and availed services of CHILDLINE, Vijayawada
and gathered information. The Researcher gathered information from the
children when they were leaving the Rescue Shelter after their problem is
solved.

Study-2: A qualitative survey undertaken to asses the impact of CHILDLINE

services. To collect the information about the services of CHILDLINE, the
researcher met children and allied systems at random basis. The children from
whom the information was gathered were selected from a wide range including
those from various categories such as school going children, child labour,
school dropouts, street children, domestic child labour (former), drug addicts,
rag pickers, slum children, rehabilitated street children, child sangha leaders,
HIV affected children, orphans, children from bridge courses, physically
challenged children, visually impaired children, children of prisoners, child
beggars, abandoned children, children rescued by CHILDLINE etc. Gender
balance has been taken care of. The researcher also met representatives of
various allied systems to asses the work of CHILDLINE. The representatives
belong to various allied systems such as NGOs, police, Government Railway
Police, Railway Protection Force, lawyers, officers and staff of the Labour
dept., Education dept, (lecturers), NCLP, Women and Child Welfare Dept.,
Sarvasikshabhiyan, Govt, hospital staff, staff of Road Transport Corporation,
rag pickers association, staff of the railways, auto drivers, rickshaw pullers,
staff from the department of Telecommunications, staff of the Municipal
Corporation, members of various political parties and students. To substantiate
study, the researcher also adopted a case study method to study the activities of
CHILDLINE in the area of rescue and protection of children in distress.

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6. Profile of the sample:

The following procedures /steps were followed to conduct the study.

Step-1: To study the services of CHILDLINE at Rescue Shelter, researcher

specially selected the children who have completed 2 days of stay at Child
Rescue Shelter and availed the services from CHILDLINE. The snow ball
sample method was adopted. The interview schedule used was a semistructured questionnaire. The researcher interviewed totally 500 children
(42.5%) out of 1181 children at Child Rescue Shelter of CHILDLINE
Vijayawada.

Step-2 : To study and to assess the impact of CHILDLINE services in the city
of Vijayawada, Krishna district. The researcher selected the children randomly
for sample study, from various categories like school children, working
children etc. and representatives of the allied systems. The researcher
interviewed them by using the tool of semi-structured questionnaire. The
researcher interviewed totally 246 members. Out of these 183 were children
(5% out of a total universe of 3666 children) and 63 were adults. The study is
based on a case study method. However, in order to substantiate data and to fill
in the gaps if any, a sample size of 5% felt is appropriate cutting across of all
the categories of children.

Respondent children were selected from various categories

such as school

going children, child labour, school dropouts, street children, former domestic
child labour, drug addicts, rag pickers, slum children, rehabilitated street
children, child sangha leaders, HIV affected children, orphans, children from
bridge courses, physically challenged children, visually impaired children,
children of prisoners, child beggars, abandoned children, children rescued by
CHILDLINE etc:

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The researcher selected the samples on the basis of stratified sample method
and size of the sample is five percent from universe. Hence the respondent
children have been selected from the following categories:

Table/graph No.3.1: Profile ofSample

5% Sample

S. No

Category of Children

Universe

Street Children

400

20

Child labour

580

29

School going children

100

50

School dropouts

1200

60

180

300

15

3660

183

Selection.

Differentlyabled
5

children (Physically &

orthopedic handicapped and
Visually and hearing impaired)

Slum children
Total

These respondents have been identified from organizations / institutions

working with children across Vijayawada rural and urban on stratified
random basis. The organizations/institutions are listed below:

Table/graph No.3.2: Respondents* Institutions

S. No

Name of the organization

Category of children

AMG India International

Street Children

Bethel Ministries

Physically Challenged

Bala Vikasa Kendram

Bala Vikasa Kendram

Care & Share

children who worked as Child

beggars, children of prisoners &
rescued by CHILDLINE, Night

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shelter / Rag Pickets

City Education Society

Street Children

Deepa Nivas

School

going

boys

and

Vocational training children

former street. girls and present

Good Shepard Convent

School going
street

Former

Happy Home

children

and

presently school going

Jagruthi

Former Child Labour

Former Child Labour

Rehabilitated

street

boys,

rehabilitated child labour girls,

street children,

rag pickers &

Drug addicts
Street boys, girls worked as

SKCV Childrens Trust

domestic

maids

&

dealt by

CHILDLINE
Vasavya Mahila Manali

Street Boys

World Vision

Slum

children

&

Municipal

School going children

Bridge schools under National Child labour
child labour project (NCLP)
Government

Hostel

for Differently- abled boys

handicapped boys
Government Childrens Home

Destitute and poor girls

Deaf Reach

Dumb and deaf children

Vijaya Mary Blind School

Visually impaired boys and girls

Kennedy school

Children from Upper middle

class families - boys & girls

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7. Pre Test:
A pretest was conducted by the researcher using the interview schedules. 25
children were interviewed for study-1 and ten children and five representatives
of allied systems were interviewed for study-2 to fine tune and finalize the
interview schedules for the study.

8. Tools of Data collection:

For study-1, the researcher collected information from the respondents in the
shelter setting by using structured interview schedule2 which consisted of
numerous questions to elicit information from target group to asses the services
of CHILDLINE at Child Rescue Shelter.

For study-2, the researcher collected the necessary information from the
respondents in the field using the structured interview schedule3.

Separate

questions were prepared for the children and for the allied systems to ensure
that all children of age groups and background can participated in the interview

9. Source of Data:
In view of the manifold objectives of the study the data has been collected from
both primary and secondary sources.

Primary data:

The data to assess the services of CHILDLINE at Rescue

Shelter and the impact on the CHILDLINE services have been directly
gathered from the children as well as representatives of the allied systems
through interview schedules and questionnaires by the researcher personally.
On the basis of the information collected, the hypotheses are tested and
findings are recorded.

2 Appendix-12- Quessitionaiere for study-1

3 Appendix-13 A & B-Quessionaries for study-2

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Secondary Data: The secondary data has been collected from the records of
CHILDLINE Vijayawada, reference books, published reports, research reports,
magazines & journals, news letters, websites, documentary films, project
reports and news paper clippings.

10. Data processing:

The filled up questionnaires and schedules were scrutinized every night, and
random field checking was carried out subsequently to confirm findings and
conclusions.

The data collected was edited in order to see that all the required information is
collected for the purpose of the study. After editing, the data was classified and
coded. Once coded, the same has been tabulated into various tables as per the
objectives of the study.

11.

Data Analysis:

The data is analyzed through percentages and averages. Further, the data is also
represented graphically, where ever necessary. The study deals with the profile
of CHILDLINE, analysis of calls, services and impact assessment. The data
analysis is through sample collection and compilation method.

12. Limitations of the Study:

1. To understand CHILDLINE and its activities, case study method was
adopted. Since case study method has its own limitations, the same
limitations are applicable to the present study also. The limitation of case
study method is to a very large extend limited the study.

2. Data that the researcher sought was not available in the records of the
CHILDLINE Vijayawada. Example the statistics of the life situation,
demographic profile of those who approached CHILDLINE and detailed
age group of children of the first three years.

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3. Due to lack of the compiled data and time constraint the researcher could
not make a study on the children/persons making calls to CHILDLINE
and their socio economic background.
4. To asses the impact of the CHILDLINE services a questionnaire was
prepared to interview the children as well as the representatives of the
allied systems. Since the questionnaire was meant for the evaluation on
the service rendered by CHILDLINE, a helpline for children in distress,
the number of questions in the questionnaire is small.

13.

Chapterization:

Chapter I
In the first chapter, the researcher presented the introduction about
CHILDLINE in general, its history, beginnings, functioning etc., the
functioning of CHILDLINE Vijayawada and its role in making Vijayawada a
child friendly city, the concept of the present study, research questions and plan
of the study.

Chapter II
The second chapter comprises of review of various related literature such as
reference books, published reports, research reports, magazines and journals,
news letters, websites, documentary films, project reports, news paper
clippings etc.

Chapter III
The third chapter includes the research methodology, which includes selection
of the topic for the study, research design, study area, selection of sample,
pretest, tools for the data collection, source of data collection, data processing,
data analysis and limitation of the study.

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Chapter IV
In chapter four, the researcher has analyzed the services offered by
CHILDLINE Vijayawada in Krishna district by bringing out the profile of the
children approaching CHILDLINE, analysis of intervention calls, other calls,
analysis of accessibility of different CHILDLINE centers, analysis of service
rendered, statistics and the comparisons of help sought by children and service
rendered by CHILDLINE.

Chapter V
Chapter five deals with the assessment of services of CHILDLINE at Child
Rescue Shelter of CHILDLINE Vijayawada in Krishna district, which includes
the profile of the respondents, response of children on services of
CHILDLINE, facilities at child rescue shelter and the satisfaction levels
towards the services of CHILDLINE.

Chapter VI
Chapter six deals with the analysis on the impact of CHILDLINE service,
which includes the profile of the respondents, response of children and allied
systems on sendees of CHILDLINE, the problems faced by children in
Vijayawada city from the perspective of children and the suggestions gathered
from the children and allied systems to make Vijayawada a child friendly city.

Chapter VII
In chapter seven, the researcher presented the summary of the observations,
major findings, suggestions and conclusion.

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