Matribhumi Samachar English
MLT plans to support with the AI-enabled WhatsApp chatbot across 100 BMC schools in Mumbai’s East Ward
Mumbai, September 10, 2026: Child safety begins with conversations. According to NCRB’s “Crime in India 2024” report, India recorded 69,191 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act – with close acquaintances, not strangers, responsible for over 96% of cases. Helping children and young people understand boundaries, consent and healthy relationships, recognise situations that make them uncomfortable, and know when and how to seek help are important building blocks of prevention of abuse. Equally important is ensuring that parents, teachers and caregivers have the knowledge to listen, respond and support them.
Taking this prevention-first approach forward, Missing Link Trust (MLT) launched ‘Khuli Baat’, an AI-enabled, WhatsApp-based child safety chatbot, in collaboration with Capgemini India.
‘Khuli Baat’, meaning an open conversation, is designed to make reliable safety information and guidance more accessible to parents and caregivers. It helps adults navigate conversations around boundaries, consent, relationships, online safety, abuse, and exploitation with the children in their care, and points them to appropriate support and resources when they need it. Any adult can start a conversation by messaging a Hi to this chatbot at 6003060040 on WhatsApp.
Scan to chat here
The chatbot was launched by Shri Brijesh Singh, IPS – Principal Secretary, Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra, along with other dignitaries, at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre on September 10. Missing Link Trust works on prevention across 100 BMC schools in Mumbai. The partnership spans three areas: providing safety education to 10,000 adolescents through school-based programmes, developing ‘Khuli Baat’ as an AI-enabled safety chatbot for parents, teachers and caregivers, and strengthening ecosystem responses to child sexual violence through multi-stakeholder conferences and consultations.
Leena Kejriwal, Founder Trustee & CEO, Missing Link Trust, said:
“When a child suffers sexual violence, the impact is incalculable. It disrupts milestones, fractures their sense of safety, and affects mental health and futures for years to come. This is why ‘Khuli Baat’ takes a prevention-first approach. Adolescence comes with emotions and behaviour that adults often don’t know how to read or respond to without judgement. Parents, teachers and caregivers need to be able to recognise early signs that something is wrong, and know what to do about it – clearly and safely. ‘Khuli Baat’ isn’t generic advice from an AI model. It’s built on over a decade of our on-ground work, so the guidance is rooted in real, local patterns of risk, and sensitive to the realities Indian families live with. Every response comes from a carefully curated knowledge base, built with deliberate attention to bias, gender, and power dynamics, and designed to work for adults with different levels of digital access and literacy. And it doesn’t stop at information – it connects families to real, local support and reporting pathways, so the goal isn’t just to inform adults, but to help them understand what they are seeing and then to take action accordingly.”
Kumar Anurag Pratap, Vice President and CSR Head – India, Capgemini said:
“As children spend more time online, technology brings both opportunities and new risks, making prevention and early intervention increasingly important. ‘Khuli Baat’ leverages technology to make reliable child safety resources readily accessible to parents and caregivers through a platform they already use. Technology is not replacing human relationships; it is strengthening them by equipping adults with the knowledge and confidence to better support and protect children.”
The launch builds on Missing Link Trust’s wider prevention work through its Missing Awareness & School Safety Program (MASSp), which equips adolescents with knowledge and skills around child sexual violence, online safety, boundaries, grooming, disclosure and help-seeking.
Through ‘Khuli Baat’, MLT aims to strengthen this ecosystem and make safety education, open conversations and early help-seeking a more everyday part of childhood.
Leena Kejriwal added:
“We envision a world where every child can grow up safe from sexual violence and exploitation. That requires more than responding after harm occurs. It requires giving children knowledge and agency, and enabling the adults around them to become informed, responsive and trusted sources of support. ‘Khuli Baat’ is one step towards making that possible.”
Featured Article
