HYDERABAD: Sakhi Centres are Telangana’s version of a one-stop crisis centre (OSCC), which was mandated by the government in every district after the Nirbhaya rape case in 2012.
The Supreme Court had, in fact, reiterated the need for the same in 2018 and had asked every district to mandatorily set up an OSCC to ensure that psychological, medical and legal assistance is offered to the victims of domestic and sexual violence.
However, it looks as though these centres are not linked with police stations formally to provide support to rape and POCSO victims with regard to medical examination and recording of statement. Though the State boasts of having set up Sakhi Centres across 27 of the 33 districts of Telangana, most of them cater to victims of domestic violence and not those of other sexual violence.
Data suggests that since 2017 - when the first batch of Sakhi Centres came up in nine of the erstwhile districts in the State - a total of 9,221 cases have been officially reported to the centre for mitigation and support.
Of these, as many as 3,064 cases have even been closed. However, the majority of the cases handled by the Sakhi Centres, about 70 per cent are related to domestic violence and only 30 per cent are about other crimes — rapes, trafficking to POCSO and child marriages.
It is learnt that the police continue to not send rape cases to these centres, the only institutional support for women in distress in a majority of the districts in the State. Reportedly, the police have no protocol to send victims to the Sakhi Centre.
A Sakhi Centre is run using Nirbhaya funds which are sent to the district collectors. Bharosa Centres also offer similar assistance and record statements of victims. However, it is only present in two of the 33 districts in the State, namely Hyderabad and Vikarabad.
Sources say that there is a lack of convergence between the two departments running these centres -- the women and child department (WCD) and the police department, respectively. The lacuna has lead to police not sending rape victims or POCSO victims to Sakhi Centres.
"There has to be an urgent convergence between the two departments in a way that both victims of domestic violence and crimes like rape can go to Sakhi Centres," said Mamtha Raghuveer, technical head of Bharosa Centres.