One Stop Centre Scheme | 20 Jul 2019

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.