One Stop centre - SAKHI
According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, reported incidents of crime against women is on a rise and and a crime against a woman is committed every three minutes.
Violence against women has received unprecedented focus in governance and politics in the aftermath of Nirbhaya incident. Along with comprehensive reform of the Criminal Law Act in 2013, enhanced governance became a priority to urgently tackle widespread violence against women. Hence, in the budget of 2013, the then Finance Minister announced ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for empowerment, safety and security of women and girl children’.
One stop centre is one of the schemes approved under the Nirbhaya Fund. OSC are intended to support women affected by violence, in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace. Women facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse, irrespective of age, class, caste, education status, marital status, race and culture are facilitated with support and redressal.
In Odisha, the first OSC- Sakhi was established on 1st Oct 2015 at the Capital hospital premises, Bhubaneswar. People’s Forum was the nodal agency for the centre.
Objectives
- To provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof.
- To facilitate immediate, emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services including medical, legal, psychological and counseling support under one roof to fight against any forms of violence against women.
Target group
The OSC will support all women including girls below 18 years of age affected by violence, irrespective of caste, class, religion, region, sexual orientation or marital status. For girls below 18 years of age, institutions and authorities established under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 will be linked with the OSC.
Services
The OSC will facilitate access to following services:
Sl. No. |
Type of Service |
Description |
1 |
Emergency Response and Rescue Services |
OSC will provide rescue and referral services to the
women affected by violence. For this, linkages will be
developed with existing mechanisms such as National
Health Mission (NHM), 108 service, police (PCR Van) so
that the woman affected by violence can either be rescued
from the location and referred to the nearest medical
facility (Public/ Private) or shelter home.
|
2 |
Medical Assistance |
Women affected by violence would be referred to the
nearest Hospital for medical aid/examination which would
be undertaken as per the guidelines and protocols
developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
|
3 |
Assistance to women in lodging FIR/NCR/DIR |
The OSC will facilitate the lodging of FIR/NCR/DIR.
|
4 |
Psycho-social support/counselling |
A skilled counsellor providing psycho-social counselling
services would be available on call. This counselling
process will give women confidence and support to
address violence or to seek justice for the violence
perpetuated. Counsellors shall follow a prescribed code of
ethics, guidelines and protocols in providing counselling
services.
|
5 |
Legal aid and counselling |
To facilitate access to justice for women affected by
violence, legal aid and counselling would be provided at
OSC through empanelled Lawyers or
National/State/District Legal Service Authority. The
aggrieved woman would be provided with an advocate of
her choice in case she wants to engage the same to assist
the State Prosecutors in trying her case2.
It would be the responsibility of the Lawyer/Prosecutor to
simplify legal procedures for the aggrieved woman and
advocate for her exemption from court hearings.
In case the trial or inquiry relates to an offence of rape as
defined under section 376, 376A-D IPC, it would be the
duty of the Prosecutors trying the case to complete the
inquiry or trial as far as possible within a period of two
months from the date of filing of charge sheet.3
|
6 |
Shelter |
The OSC will provide temporary shelter facility to
aggrieved women. For long term shelter requirements,
arrangements will be made with Swadhar Greh/Short Stay
Homes (managed/affiliated with government/NGO).
Women affected by violence along with their children
(girls of all ages and boys up till 8 years of age) can avail
temporary shelter at the OSC for a maximum period of 5
days. The admissibility of any woman to the temporary
shelter would be at the discretion of Centre Administrator.
|
7 |
Video Conferencing Facility |
To facilitate speedy and hassle free police and court
proceedings the OSC will provide video conferencing
facility (through Skype, Google Conferencing etc.).
Through this facility if the aggrieved woman wants, she
can record her statement for police/ courts from OSC itself
using audio-video electronic means as prescribed under
sections 161(3), 164(1) and 275(1) of the Code of
Criminal Procedure and section 231(1) in line with Order
XVIII Rule 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure. This facility
will be provided only after consultation among
Superintendent of Police, District and Sessions Judge of
the concerned district (place of incident).
|
Accessing One Stop Center
A woman affected by violence can access OSC in the following manner:
- By herself or through any person including any public spirited citizen, public servant (as defined under section 21 of Indian Penal Code, 1860), relative, friend, NGO, volunteer etc., or
- Through Women Helpline integrated with police, ambulance and other emergency response help lines.
As soon as the complaint is registered a text message (SMS/Internet) would be sent to
the DPO/PO/CDPO/ SHO/ DM/ SP/ DYSP/CMO/PO of the district/area as required.
ONE STOP
CENTRE
By Herself
Women Helpline/
Any other Helpline
Accompanied by any person
including Public Servant/
Relative/ Friend/ NGO/
Volunteer/ Public Spirited
Citizen/ AWW/Other
frontline workers
11
When an aggrieved woman approaches the OSC for help either in person or if anybody
approaches on her behalf, the case details will be fed in to a system as per the
prescribed format and a Unique ID Number will be generated. A sample Registration
Form (preliminary) is annexed at Annexure III.
A web based software for OSC integrated with Women Helpline (181) has been
developed by Aman Satya Kachroo Trust which is operational in Chhattisgarh (in
Chandigarh 181 Helpline is operational). This may be adopted by the States/UTs,
customized as per the OSC implementation guidelines and contextualized as per their
local requirements (regional language version of the software).
Convergence with Other Departments
The roles/responsibilities of other Departments to facilitate the functioning of OSC are outlined in the table below:
Sl. No. |
Ministry |
Primary Role |
Other Support |
1 |
Department of
Health &
Family
Welfare
|
-
Protocols for doctors issued by
the Ministry to be made
available in local dialect
To be given in a “calendar
form” to OSC
-
Directories of
Doctors/Hospitals/ Clinics
(public & private) operational
within the State/UT
-
Directories with complete
address, phone number of in-
charge/nodal Doctor and
hospital.
-
Directories of Ambulances
(public and private).
|
-
Ensure strict
enforcement of
Protocols
-
Training and
sensitization of Health
personnel including
para-medical staff.
-
Ensure proper
collection of evidence
in cases of sexual
assault.
-
Support process of
identifying paramedical
staff.
|
2 |
Department of
Home
|
|
|
3 |
State Legal
Service
Authority
|
|
|
Administration of the scheme
- At the national level, MWCD would be responsible for budgetary regulation and administration of the scheme. The scheme will be implemented under overall supervision of MWCD.
- At the State level, Department of Women and Child Development will be
responsible for overall direction and implementation of the scheme. The MC will reportto the Director, WCD through DPO/PO for all reporting and monitoring purposes.
- The Centre Administrator, at the OSC will report to the MC on monthly basis and submit quarterly reports.
Aggrieved women facing any kind of violence due to attempted sexual
Violence against women has received unprecedented focus in governance and politics in the aftermath of Nirbhaya incident. Along with comprehensive reform of the Criminal Law Act in 2013, enhanced governance became a priority to urgently tackle widespread violence against women. Hence, in the budget of 2013, the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for empowerment, safety and security of women and girl children1. Set up with an initial corpus of 1000 crore, it received an additional grant of 1000 crore each in 2014 and 20152. The fund would finance several schemes for making public spaces safer for women and for rehabilitation of victims of sexual assault and violence.
65% of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten.[3]In January 2011, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) Questionnaire reported that 24% of Indian men had committed sexual violence at some point during their lives.
We are aware that violence against women is on a rise and is infact a global phenomenon. In the post Nirbhaya scenario One Stop Centres (OSC) are centres that aim to provide integrated support to women affected by violence, in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace.
Women facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse, irrespective of age, class, caste, education status, marital status, race and culture will be facilitated with support and redressal. Aggrieved women facing any kind of violence due to attempted sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, honour related crimes, acid attacks or witch-hunting who have reached out or been referred to the OSC will be provided with specialized services. 1.2 Under this Scheme, in the first phase, one OSC will initially be established in each State/UT to facilitate access to an integrated range of services including medical, legal, and psychological support. 1.3 The OSC will be integrated with 181 and other existing helplines. Women affected by violence and in need of redressal services could be referred to OSC through these helplines1 .