A centre was opened in this central Assam town on Saturday to provide shelter and support services to survivors of rape and other forms of violence against women and girls.
The one stop centre (OSC) for those women, was set up by the Hailakandi district administration and the social welfare department in collaboration with an NGO.
The OSC would be a place where integrated services
police assistance, legal aid, medical and counselling services
would be made available to the women victims of violence, Additional Deputy Commissioner Amalendu Roy said at the launching of the centre.
A toll free help number 181 is being made available to women in distress, Roy said.
The OSC could fill a critical need for support services for survivors of rape and other forms of violence against women and girls, said Kabir Ahmed, secretary of Wodwichee, the NGO.
"It can also serve as an educational resource for healthcare workers, police, lawyers, and judges," he added.
The OSCs were prioritised under the Nirbhaya Fund set up by the central government in 2013, after public protests following the gangrape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi in 2012, and long-held demands by women's rights groups, official sources said.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development formulated a centrally sponsored scheme for setting up OSCs in order to fight the issues related to gender-based violence, the sources said.
The scheme was implemented on April 1, 2015 and is popularly known as Sakhi. Around 234 such OSCs were established across the country, they said.
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