National Commission for Women (NCW) member Shyamala S Kunder directed the concerned authorities to run ‘Sakhi One-Stop Centres’ round-the-clock, in order to provide timely assistance for women in distress.
Chairing a review meeting of the women and child development programmes, held at the KDP meeting hall in Zilla Panchayat premises on Monday, she said that the centres are meant to serve women and children in terms of providing medical consultations, counselling and temporary shelter.
To make the centres effective, it is necessary for these centres to be available for the service of the needy 24x7. All basic facilities should be provided to women at Sakhi centres.
“There is a need for quick response to the problems faced by women and children,” she said and asked officials to encourage women to avail the free legal consultation from the concerned authority.
The women who come to the Sakhi centre should be immediately attended to and they should be enlightened on the schemes and other facilities provided to them by the government. Efforts should be made to solve the issues pertaining to domestic violence, dowry and other cases through counselling, she added.
The NCW member also suggested conducting a seminar on the programmes implemented by the department of women and child development.
Follow-ups must be done on the improvement of those who avail loans under Udyogini scheme, she added.
Woman and Child Welfare district administrative officer Prabhavathi was present among others.
Services for women
District child protection officer T S Arundhathi said that 61 cases under Pocso, 10 under sexual abuse on children, eight on sexual harassment on women, three on harassment of women, 11 on domestic violence, four missing cases and 13 other cases have been registered in the district during the current year.
Support is being extended to affected women, though Santwana centres. A total of 3,762 cases have been filed in Santwana centres since 2002 and out of these, 3,649 have been solved.
As many as 335 people have been sheltered in the centre and free legal assistance has been provided to women in 81 cases. Counselling has been provided in 390 cases and financial assistance was provided in 219 cases. As many as 337 women were provided vocational training and education has been provided to 43 and 20 children have been rehabilitated, she said.
The official further said that in Virajpet, women subjected to harassment have been provided with support through Spoorthi Mahila Santwana Kendra. A total of 2,572 cases have been registered in the centre from 2011-12 to 2018-19 and out of these, 2,570 have been disposed-off.
Seventy complaints have been registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in the district since 2012-13 and 66 child marriages have been prevented, T S Arundhathi added.