Governance
One Stop Centre Scheme
- 20 Jul 2019
- 3 min read
One stop centre is a centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), for addressing the problem of violence against women.
- It is a subscheme of umbrella scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of Women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana.
- One stop centre, will be established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces.
- Funding: The scheme is funded through Nirbhaya Fund and the central government provides 100% financial assistance to the state governments /Union Territories administrations.
- Auditing: Audit will be done as per Comptroller & Auditor General of India norms and social audit will also be undertaken by civil society groups.
- Services: One stop centres will be integrated with women helplines to provide following services:
- Emergency response and rescue services.
- Medical assistance.
- Assistance to women in lodging the FIR.
- Psycho- social support and counselling.
- Legal aid and counselling.
- Shelter
- Video conferencing facility.
Background
- ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ was established for women safety pertaining to the strategic areas of prevention, protection and rehabilitation.
- The 12th Plan Working Group on Women’s Agency and Empowerment had recommended setting up of one stop crisis centres.
- Usha Mehra Commission, had recommended for the establishment of a “one-stop centre” to help victims of sexual assault and ensure speedy punishment to culprits.
Nirbhaya Fund
- The Nirbhaya Fund Framework provides for a non-lapsable corpus fund for safety and security of women.
- It is administered by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of the Government of India.
- It can be utilized for projects and initiatives related to women safety.
Need
- 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.
- In India, gender based violence has many manifestations:
- Like domestic and sexual violence including rape.
- Harmful practices such as, dowry, honour killings, acid attacks, witch-hunting, sexual harassment, child sexual abuse, trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, child marriage, sex selective abortion, sati etc.
- India is also grappling with violence due to inequities in social life more particularly in times of displacement and communal incidents.