NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women has issued a notice to the state health authorities over long delays in conducting medical examination of sexual assault survivors at Delhi’s hospitals. The commission said that it assists all survivors of sexual assault through initiatives under its Rape Crisis Cell as well as Crisis Intervention Centre, and provides psychological and legal assistance to the survivors of sexual assault.
The counsellors of the commission – who remain present in the hospitals during the medical examination of survivors to provide them support – have informed that there happens to be undue delays in conducting their medical examination.
“For instance, it took almost 15 hours to conduct medical examination of a sexual assault survivor at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, 12 hours at the Lok Nayak Hospital and over 8 hours at the Safdarjung Hospital. On average, a rape survivor is made to wait for hours for their medical examination at hospitals in the capital,” the commission said.
When this reporter contacted health officials, including health secretary Amit Singla, messages and calls remained unanswered. The commission taking suo motu cognisance in the matter has issued a notice to the health authorities seeking reasons for the delay. It sought data to assess whether resources, both infrastructure and human resource have been allotted specifically for the purpose of medical examination of rape survivors.
Details have been sought of the process followed by the hospitals to give priority to the survivors of rape, standard timelines in which the examination must happen and action taken against the officers if the medical examination is not conducted within the desired time frame. In its notice, the commission has stated that incase SOPs have not been drafted by the health authorities.