Even though the number of rape cases is on the rise in the Millennium City, the One-Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) at the Civil Hospital here cries for attention due to lack of infrastructure and staff crunch.
The centre was set up to provide medical aid and other support services to rape victims under one roof.
Two OSCCs were announced to be set up at Gurgaon and Faridabad two years ago and were envisaged to provide comprehensive service — medical facility, legal aid, police services and counselling under one roof to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
A budget of Rs.35 lakh was announced for each OSCC. As per the plan, the centres were to have a team of around eight to 10 people comprising a counsellor, a police officer, a lawyer, two on-duty doctors and support staff like nurses, helpers and sweepers. The centre was to be headed by a co-ordinator.
Though a small room with two beds has been earmarked as an OSCC at the Gurgaon Civil Hospital, Pankaj Verma, president of NGO Farishtey told The Hindu that more then two years after the announcement, the centre existed more on paper.
“We have taken several rape victims to the Civil Hospital over the past two years, but never found doctors available at the centre, let alone an advocate, counsellor and the support staff. On some occasions, we had to wait for more than two hours before the doctor turned up,” said Mr. Verma.
He also added that the centre was set up only six months back after information in this regard was sought under the Right to Information Act.
The hospital also lacks infrastructure to treat rape victims with grave injuries and mostly refers them to Safdarjung Hosptial in Delhi. In the rape of a five-year-old two days ago, the hospital referred the victim to Safdarjung Hospital.
“Ideally, the hospital should be well-equipped to deal with such cases. But even if the facilities are not available, the CMO has the power to refer the victim to a private hospital. But these patients, mostly belonging to poor families, are referred to Safdarjung Hospital, which is an hour’s journey from Gurgaon. In the recent case of the five-year-old victim, her parents tried to get her admitted to nearby private hospitals but all refused admission,” said Mr. Verma.
Though the OSCC is supposed to be a round-the-clock facility, when this correspondent visited the hospital around noon on Wednesday it was found to be latched. One of the nurses told this correspondent that the centre did not have a dedicated staff.
Though Civil Hospital Chief Medical Officer Pushpa Bishnoi, who is the centre’s co-ordinator, could not be contacted, Deputy Commissioner T.L. Satyaprakash said that he was not aware of any such centre.
Published - April 02, 2015 12:00 am IST
