HYDERABAD: In order to provide in-time help to women in distress, especially during incidents of rape, domestic violence and sexual harassments, the Andhra Pradesh government is coming up with a integrated mechanism, wherein all the concerned machineries will be brought under one roof to provide assistance to the victims.
Plans are afoot to set up a integrate 181 service (specially set up women in need), 100 and 108 services.
According to principle secretary Health & Family Welfare Poonam Malakondaiah all the concerned machineries involved in such cases such as police, Health & Family Welfare, legal department all would be brought under a single roof so that the victim do not have to run from one department to other.
"Once a call is received either in 181, 100 or 108 services. Officials would register complaint and swing in to action. They would reach to the place of the incident or victims residence and take their statement. They would even send a copy of the complaint to the police stations under whose jurisdiction the incident has taken place," she said.
Besides, the victims would be provided counselling and other assistance. A round-the-clock helpline service would be set in every district of the State with Vijayawada as the main centre.
Every centre would have five counsellors, which include legal counsellor, social counsellor, police personnel and an NGO worker. Already Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has come forward to provide trained counsellors for the centres, Poonam Malakondaiah said.
This effort will go a long way to make women feel safe, she said.