In an effort to support survivors of domestic violence and burn violence, the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) launched a national hotline facility here on Sunday. The numbers are 044-43111143 and 18001027282 (24-hour toll-free number). It was inaugurated by Elke Büdenbender, wife of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Prasanna Gettu, founder of PCVC, said the facility would help women get counselling, legal awareness and information. The PCVC helpline receives about 300 new crisis calls every year.
“The national hotline facility aims to reach out to more women and will be staffed by trained personnel. This is piloted in the State for two years and We want to create a database of stakeholders in all districts of a State. The database will have everything that survivors will require, from information on rehabilitation and government schemes to job opportunities,” she said.
“Many don’t know that such a helpline, that we already have, exists and people who call find the number through the internet; more women who want to reach out need to know about the hotline,” she added.
Research done in four locations — the National Capital Region, Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu — has revealed that incidents of domestic violence are quite high
Rehabilitation process
Swetha Shankar of PCVC said 90% of burn violence incidents are reported as accidents and 75% of the victims die. Many calls from burn survivors come from the Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) and they need a sustained rehabilitative process, which takes a few years. But many of them don’t come for the rehabilitation because there may not be post-hospital services available or because their families are not keen. “For instance, of the 800 women who came to KMC last year, only 80 came for rehabilitation,” she said.
