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One Stop Centre - SAKHI

ONE STOP CENTRE - SAKHI

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Sakhi is a women-oriented program which is aimed against different forms of violence against women. It has been an initiative post Nirbhaya Gang Rape in Delhi in 2012. Decreasing violence against women and girls requires a community-based, multi-pronged approach, and sustained engagement with multiple stakeholders. This is a proactive initiative to combat violence against women. SAKHI runs under the Government of Odisha in partnership with People’s Forum. The name SAKHI literally translates to a “friend” which is always there to stand by for support and guidance when needed. The place is also referred to as ‘One Stop Centre’, as it is a single stop which provides integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces; it facilitates immediate, emergency and non-emergency accesses to a range of services under single roof. Due to the alarming rate of gender-based violence, Sakhi, One Stop Centre, S.L.N. Medical college & Hospital, Koraput was inaugurated on 3rd August 2018 to address the issue and support women.

Objectives

  • To provide integrated support and assistance to the women affected by violence.
  • To facilitate immediate, emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services.
  • To provide 24*7 services and assistance.
  • To provide a safe, friendly and accessible environment for guidance and support
  • To maintain necessary confidentiality.

Awareness Activities:

Awareness activities play a major role in empowering women with sharing knowledge and spreading awareness about violence and helping women take actions against them. Identification of the problem, reaching out to help, spreading awareness and taking actions are the important goals that awareness programs are focused on.

  • Total number of awareness activities conducted by Sakhi; Bhubaneshwar are 36.
  • Out of which 4 were conducted at block level in the schools and colleges and 32 were conducted in Slum areas.

Sakhi, Koraput centre conducted 29 awareness programs.

Cases registered in Sakhi, One Stop Centre:

Services

The OSC will facilitate access to following services:

1 Domestic Violence 64
2 Rape case 77
3 Sexual Harassment 17
4 Missing/Kidnapping 129
5 Cyber Crime 2
6 Child Sexual abuse 1
7 Dowry Harassment 0
8 Women trafficking 0
9 Any other cases 50

OAccessing 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.

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).

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 .