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One-stop center

One Stop Centre is a central and state government supported scheme for rehabilitation of victims of various kinds of violence against women and children. It is a comprehensive scheme that promises to provide non threatening atmosphere to women and children. Besides support in treatment and counseling, the one stop centre is also helping survivors to lodge a police complaint and record statements. One stop centre takes a various initiatives to prevent violence against children and women through awareness meetings, campaign, rallies, coordination, advocacy and networking.

Ongoing causes

  • The intention of the One-Stop Scheme (OSC) is to support women affected by the violence that they may face within the family or at the workplace or within the community, in private or public places.
  • A support mechanism and redressal for women are some of the facilities of this scheme for women who face sexual/physical/psychological/emotional/economic abuse, irrespective of their caste, creed, race, class, education status, age, culture, or marital status.
  • Specialized services would be provided to the aggrieved women facing any kind of violence due to attempted acid attacks, witch-hunting, domestic violence, trafficking, sexual assault or sexual harassment and have reached out or been referred to the OSC.

Need of One Stop Centre Scheme

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 the 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. For the purpose to address such violence and help women in distress, a centrally sponsored scheme by the government for setting up a One-Stop Centre has been formulated by Government.

One-Stop Centre Services provided

  1. No. of legal aid/counseling support provided
  2. No. of medical assistance provided
  3. No. of police assistance services provided
  4. No. of cases in which Shelter support required
  5. No. of Psycho-social support/counseling support provided
  6. No. of cases in which survivor linked with the government scheme

What is Sakhi One Stop Centre?

  1. Under the Sakhi – OSC Scheme, centers have been created that offer integrated services like medical, legal, psycho-social support, and temporary shelter under one roof
  2. police facility to help file NCR, FIR, etc
  3. They also provide the necessary support to women facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse where they are facilitated with support and redressal irrespective of age, class, caste, education status, marital status, race, and culture.
  4. By dialing a Women’s toll-free helpline 181, any woman in an adverse situation or someone on her behalf can seek help from the Sakhi Centre 24X7.

‘Sakhi—one stop center for all assistance to women’.
Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a global health, human rights and development issue that transcends geography, class, culture, age, race and religion to affect every community and country in every corner of the world.

The Article 1 of UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence 1993 provides a definition of gender – based abuse, calling it “any act of gender – based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.

In India, gender based violence has many manifestations; from the more universally prevalent forms of domestic and sexual violence including rape, to harmful practices such as, dowry, honor killings, acid attacks, witch – hunting, sexual harassment, child sexual abuse, trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, child marriage, sex selective abortion, sati etc.

Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), has formulated a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for setting up One Stop Centre, a sub – scheme of Umbrella Scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana. Popularly known as Sakhi, the scheme is being implemented since 1st April 2015. These Centres are being established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces in phased manner.

Objective

One Stop Centres (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 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.

The objectives of the Scheme are:

  • 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 counselling 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.

Services offered in OSCs

The Centres will be integrated with a Women Helpline to facilitate access to following services.

  • 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.
  • 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
  • Assistance to women in lodging FIR /NCR/DIR
  • 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.
  • Legal aid and counselling – To facilitate access to justice for women affected by violence, legal aid and counselling would be provided at OSC through empaneled 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 case. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Centre

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 helplines.
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. 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.

Implementing Agency

State Government/ UT Administration.

SERVICE DELIVERY FRAMEWORK – ROLES AND

RESPONSIBILITIES

The service providers of the OSC will have following responsibilities:

Centre Administrator – The First Point of Contact

  1. The Centre Administrator would be a woman with requisite qualification
  2. available at OSC. She will be a residential staff attached to OSC.
  3. The Centre Administrator would be in charge of functioning of OSC. She would be the first point of contact with the woman who is accessing OSC.
  4. The Centre Administrator would interact with every woman seeking
  5. OSC’s intervention for addressing violence.
  6. The Centre Administrator will listen to the grievance, document the case
  7. history and register the case in the online/web-based case management
  8. system to generate a Unique Identity Number (UID).
  9. The Centre Administrator would be responsible for supervision of each
  10. case, taking it to a logical conclusion and later following up with the
  11. aggrieved woman.
  12. As soon as the complaint is registered, the Centre Administrator will send
  13. a text message (SMS/Internet) to the DPO/PO/CDPO/ SHO/ DM/ SP/
  14. DYSP/CMO of the district in which the women is located at the time of
  15. accessing OSC.
  16. The Centre Administrator would be responsible for coordination with all
  17. stakeholders (police station, hospital, legal aid, counselling), registration of
  18. cases in the absence of the IT Staff.
  19. The Centre Administrator will consolidate a list of agencies/individuals
  20. providing/willing to provide legal/medical/psycho-social counselling
  21. services at OSC.
  22. The Centre Administrator will coordinate with CBOs specialized in
  23. addressing violence against women, Gender Cells, Women’s Study Centres
  24. at Universities to seek technical inputs in terms of training and capacity
  25. building of women affected by violence.
  26. The Centre Administrator will monitor the functioning of OSC, (including
  27. the work of the staff), facilitate capacity building, guide and support the 
  28. 7
  29. team of caregivers.
  30. The Centre Administrator would approve the quarterly report prepared by
  31. the IT Staff to be submitted to the Management Committee (MC) through
  32. Implementing Agency (IA).
  33. The Centre Administrator would also document the case studies/success
  34. stories as per the prescribed format.
  35. The Quarterly Report has to be submitted 15 days prior to the end of each
  36. Quarter.
  37. The Centre Administrator will meet the MC on a monthly basis for/li>
  38. guidance, support.
  39. The footage of the CCTV would be under the vigilance of the Centre
  40. Administrator.
  41. The Centre Administrators can design their own feedback forms for the
  42. purpose of Social Audit.
  43. Case Worker
  44. Case Workers will work in shifts to provide 24 hour service at OSC.
  45. She will provide assistance and support to the Centre Administrator in
  46. facilitating services to women accessing OSC.
  47. She will intervene in cases of VAW and will take them to their logical
  48. conclusion.
  49. She will be responsible for other work as assigned by the Centre
  50. Administrator.
  51. Police Facilitation Officer (PFO)
  52. The Police Facilitation Officer will help the aggrieved women in initiating
  53. appropriate police proceedings against the perpetrators. In case a woman
  54. affected by violence is denied lodging of FIR/Complaint or any other
  55. assistance at the police station, the Police Facilitation Officer would help
  56. expedite the process and in special cases flag the issue to the
  57. Superintendent of Police and other relevant authorities.
  58. In case the denial to initiate proceedings relates to the commission of
  59. offences punishable u/s 326A, 326B, 354, 354B, 370, 370A, 376, 376A,
  60. 376B, 376C, 376D, 376E or 509 IPC, he/she will initiate proceedings
  61. under section 166A IPC against the accused police officials. 
  62. The Police Facilitation Officer would advise on which laws are to be
  63. invoked for issues related to violence against women.
  64. She/he will ensure that the women affected by violence are not further

    65. harassed.

  65. In case the aggrieved woman is unable to go to the Police Station for
  66. lodging her complaint/FIR, the Police Facilitation Officer will ensure the
  67. recording of information from her home/ OSC /hospital after obtaining due
  68. permissions.
  69. She/he would facilitate recording of women’s statement under section 161
  70. and 164 CrPC through audio-video electronic means or otherwise.
  71. Para Legal Personnel/ Lawyer
  72. She/he will inform and orient the woman about her legal rights and
  73. help/guide the woman to initiate legal proceedings against the
  74. abuse/violence suffered, if she is willing to do so.
  75. She/he will coordinate/liaise with the Public Prosecutor or the
  76. SLSA/DLSA Lawyer, to support the woman even after her case has been
  77. filed in court as well as to ensure there is follow-up of the case to its
  78. logical conclusion.
  79. She/he will simplify legal procedures for the affected women and advocate
  80. for her exemption from court hearings.
  81. She/he will facilitate speedy and hassle free police and court proceedings
  82. through the employment of video conferencing facility for the recording of
  83. statement of women affected by violence. 
  84. Para Medical Personnel
  85. Para Medical Personnel will work in shifts to provide 24 hour service at OSC.
  86. She will provide first aid and immediate life-saving medical assistance to
  87. the aggrieved woman until she reaches the hospital.
  88. She will accompany the woman affected by violence to the Hospital. In
  89. cases of women affected by sexual violence, she will ensure strict
  90. compliance of the protocols developed by MoHFW to conduct forensic
  91. examination and other tests by the Doctors.
  92. She will help in drafting the medical case history of the women affected by
  93. Violence.
  94. Counsellor
  95. She will provide psychological counselling and guidance to the woman
  96. affected by violence and support in referral services that may be deemed fit
  97. for the women affected by violence based on her needs.
  98. She will help draft the case history of the women affected by violence.
  99. IT Staff
  100. IT Staff will work in shifts to provide 24 hour service at OSC.
  101. The IT Staff would generate the Unique ID of the women affected by
  102. violence through web based software.
  103. She/he would document the case history as provided by the Centre
  104. Administrator, Counsellor, Paramedic, Lawyer and Police Facilitation
  105. Officer and record proceedings for case management as well as develop
  106. the web based data, help in video conferencing, data entry operations etc.
  107. She/he would be responsible for keeping record of CCTV footage at OSC.
  108. She/he would follow strict proceedings to maintain privacy with regard to
  109. data generated and will ensure that name and other details of aggrieved
  110. women remain confidential in each step of case history documentation.
  111. She/he will assist the police facilitation officer/counsellor/ Para Medical
  112. Personnel/ Para Legal Personnel to document the case history.
  113. She/he would draft the monthly/quarterly report based on the MIS, web
  114. based data collection which would be approved at the level of the Centre
  115. Administrator for submission to the Management Committee.
  116. Multi- purpose Helper
  117. Multi- purpose Helper will work in shifts to provide 24 hour service at OSC.
  118. She would be responsible for maintaining hygiene and sanitation at OSC.
  119. It would be her responsibility to clean the toilets (daily at such frequency
  120. which keeps it clean all the time), dispose the garbage, change the bed
  121. sheets, pillow covers (weekly) of shelter room.
  122. She will offer water to the visitors, maintain visitor register, provide
  123. information on legal aid/ police/ medical assistance sheet to the women,
  124. She will provide basic Kit containing soap, comb, shampoo, sanitary pad,
  125. tooth brush, tooth paste, diapers (in case of infants) and sewing kit to the
  126. woman who is availing the facility of temporary shelter at OSC.
  127. She will help any other staff with referrals and do such other ancillary
  128. work as requested by the Centre Administrator.
  129. Security Guard/ Night Guard
  130. Security Guard/Night Guard will work in shifts to provide 24 hour service at OSC.
  131. The Security Guard/ Night Guard would be responsible for the overall
  132. security of OSC.
  133. She/he would be responsible for safety of all capital assets, furniture and
  134. equipment at OSC.