BHOPAL: A leading British university has joined hands with the Madhya Pradesh Police to help victims of sexual and domestic violence, besides children, who have been on the receiving end of all kinds of crimes.
Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom’s eighth largest university, is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state police next month to establish One Stop Crisis Centres (OSCC) at 10 women police stations to help rape survivors and victims of sexual crimes, domestic violence and crime against children.
The crisis centres, to be a medley of Juniper Lodge (a sexual assault referral centre in the UK) and the Gauravi Centre (OSCC operational at 1,250 Hospital in Bhopal), will render interagency help to women and child victims of crime under a single roof.
The 10 OSCCs are likely to come up by this year-end at women police stations in 10 major cities, including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur.
“It’s being conceptualised such that everything needed by a victim—medical help, examination and counselling—will be available under one roof. Now, a victim will not have to travel from one government office to the other for help,” said Vineet Kapoor, state coordinator of Research and Policy Cell at the MP police headquarters.
Spearheaded by the British High Commission in New Delhi, the project has four partner states—Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh—besides local academic partner National Law University (NLU-Delhi). “The victims of sexual violence have to face a lot of difficulties after the crime. They have to shuttle between hospitals and police stations for preliminary investigation, which often undermines their dignity before strangers. The new centres will offer a professional multi-agency help to all sections vulnerable to crime and also protect their dignity,” said Kapoor.
As part of the exercise to study the police infrastructure for helping the sections vulnerable to crime, Kapoor along with senior IPS officer and additional DG (ADG-Administration) of state police Anuradha Shankar had visited a host of police stations in the UK in March. It was during their visit, the idea of starting the OSCC in MP was conceptualised.
Subsequently, master trainers from England have already held a four-day hands-on training workshop for 30 trainers from AJK police stations, police training colleges and schools, crime against women cell of state police. These newly-trained trainers will now impart training to teams which will be built to train the resource base for operating the upcoming OSCC, said Kapoor.