Government helplines + grievance routes — 30 numbers

How to use a helpline so it actually works. Three habits separate a call that evaporates from a call that gets acted on. One: note the complaint or ticket number, the date and the person's name before you hang up — that number is your proof the complaint exists. Two: ask for a timeline and the escalation route in the same call, so a “we will look into it” has a shape. Three: if nothing moves in about two weeks, use that ticket number in a written grievance on CPGRAMS, and then in an RTI application asking what was done on your complaint, by whom, and when. The paper trail you build in week one is what makes week six unnecessary.

• Helpline fits service delivery: a Payment stuck, a card not printed, a portal error, a wrong entry that just needs correcting.
• CPGRAMS fits a department that is ignoring you: a written complaint travels to the concerned ministry with a timeline and a closure report.
• RTI fits everything the first two cannot do: it forces disclosure of the file's date-wise movement, the officer's name, and the reasons for a decision — things no helpline agent can give you, backed by the 30-day statutory clock in Section 7(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.

• Central Information Commission (CIC) — 011-26167931
• DoPT RTI Helpdesk — 011-23092423
• RTI Online portal helpline — for rtionline.gov.in issues
• CPGRAMS — 011-24658600 (alternative to RTI)

• Andhra Pradesh SIC
• Bihar SIC
• Delhi SIC
• Gujarat SIC
• Haryana SIC
• Karnataka SIC
• Kerala SIC
• Madhya Pradesh SIC
• Maharashtra SIC
• Odisha SIC
• Punjab SIC
• Rajasthan SIC
• Tamil Nadu SIC
• Telangana SIC
• Uttar Pradesh SIC
• West Bengal SIC

Each SIC page carries the commission's phone, address, current portal, appeal format and its own five-question RTI template for chasing a pending appeal.

• UIDAI Aadhaar — 1947
• EPFO pension/PF — 14470
• Passport — 1800-258-1800
• Income Tax — 1800-180-1961
• Police 100/112 + Cyber 1930
• Consumer Helpline — 1915
• Railway — 139 + RailMadad
• e-Shram — 14434
• Childline — 1098
• Elderline — 14567
• Women Helpline — 181

Helpline with a ticket number → written grievance to the department or CPGRAMS → RTI for the record of what was done → first appeal under Section 19(1) if the RTI stalls → the Information Commission under Section 19(2). Each rung takes about two weeks of patience, and each rung's output is the input for the next. Citizens who climb rungs in order finish faster than citizens who start at the top, because every authority asks first: “what did you do before coming to me?”

No. A helpline logs, nudges and escalates internally, but it has no power to direct. Only a statutory body — an Information Commission, a consumer commission, an ombudsman — can order. That is why the ticket number matters: it turns your later appeal or RTI from an allegation into a documented trail.

1930, the national cyber crime helpline, and the cybercrime.gov.in portal for the written complaint. Move within the first hours — the money trail is recoverable while it is warm.

They do different jobs. CPGRAMS asks “please solve my problem”; RTI asks “show me the file”. A grievance gets you an outcome if the department is willing; an RTI gets you the record that proves unwillingness. Filed together, one week apart, they rarely fail.

For every call and complaint: the ticket number, the date, the name of the person who took it, and any SMS the department sends. Photograph or screenshot these immediately — they do not survive on their own.

Each helpline page above ends with an RTI escalation template — most stuck complaints clear within 15 days of an RTI being filed. The template asks for the complaint's current status, the officer assigned, the reasons for delay, the file's movement in the past 30 days, and the likely resolution date. Filed to the right public authority, those five questions put a dated, answerable record behind your ticket number.

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