If you watched the first episode of the 2nd season of SatyaMev Jayate last Sunday, you must have come across this term. But that was not the first time One Stop Crisis Centre [OSCC] was coined in India. In February 2013, The Justice Usha Mehra Commission recommended the establishment of OSCC after the Nirbhaya Gang Rape that happened on December 16th 2012.
This Centre should ideally have a woman gynaecologist, a police officer of at least the rank of an inspector (preferably a woman police officer), a woman counsellor from an NGO which is concerned about rape victims, a forensic expert, a skilled nurse and an approachable Judicial Magistrate so as to record the statement by the victim and ensure speedy action and justice.
OSCC should be inside designated hospitals. OSCC should have each of these officials available at one place so that a rape victim can explain her trauma at once and not over and over again. Within this centre, there should be a toilet and shower facility.
Government employees in India have a tendency to ignore issues which makes them uncomfortable or if it is a task where there is no money to earn, so the officials recruited for this centre should have a full time job at the One Stop Crisis Centre and they should be paid well.
Apart from Rapes, the OSCC should also handle cases of Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse. In abroad, these centres handle Domestic Violence cases as well, but given the large number of rape cases and domestic violence cases, we need individual centres for each.
Although the recommendation by the Justice Usha Mehra Commission is done more than a year ago, no substantive development has taken place. We as a blogger need to raise our voice in a sophisticated way so I want others to write about this issue and share this article if you can.
Thanks to WriteTribe for making me ask myself, how I am going to contribute to make our country a better place for Woman.
This article about OSCC awareness is my little contribution.
Happy International Women’s Day
-Amrit Rukhaiyaar
OSCC is a good project to empower women and protect against violence. There is a dire need for women to come in the forefront and complain against any form of harassment and physical violence. One can only hope that the project doesn't get lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteTrue.. we don't lack planning, we lack execution :(
ReplyDelete