Nearly a decade after being set up in the first phase of the Central Government’s ‘One Stop Center’ scheme, it means that one of the by -the -banks in Indore, to help women facing violence or misconduct, to provide services under one roof, is dealt with thousands of cases every year, most of them are complaints of domestic abuses.
A total of 802 such centers are operational across the country.
On June 16 afternoon, outside the two -storey building, a woman from Indore credited an infant wrapped in a blanket. She said she was at the center with family members for her first counseling session, as the relationship with her in -laws took a turn for worse after her child’s birth, and she was asked to leave her home. Her husband, who is one of the north -western districts of the state, said, he was not in contact for a few weeks.
Center administrator Vachana Singh Parihar said that women either contact the Center directly, or they are referred to through police, Anganwadi workers, district administration, NGOs or 181 helpline numbers. Once in the center, which acts as round-the-clock, is provided assistance with temporary shelter, medical and legal aid.
Following the December 2012 Delhi gang rape case, a commission under Nyaya Usha Mehra recommended the establishment of ‘One Stop Center’ to help the victims of sexual attacks to inquire aspects of the incident. The Center established the ‘Nirbaya Fund’ and announced an initial amount of ‘1,000 crores in 2013 to work on the safety of women. A stop center, a project launched in 2015, has been set up under this fund.
Parihar, who has been working at the Center since 2019, said that the number of cases they are handling has been seen in a continuous increase, from 21 cases in a few months after being established in 2016-17, 555 in 2017-18 and 3,864 in 2024-25. She credits better awareness. The Center has dealt with a total of 15,683 cases as it was established. He said, “About 70–80%of these are cases related to domestic abuse. “Some only include consultation in several sessions. If it cannot be resolved in this way, the police or the court are involved,” he said.
If a case is sent to them, they travel a call or a house and asks that she visits the women’s office, where she meets a case-worker who records her statement, and then a psychological consultant. Second party – like a husband or family – then called for consultation. It is either resolved in repeated consultation sessions over a few months, or they help the woman in registering a case with the woman. Through the District Legal Services Authority, the Center also helps in providing legal assistance. Women who cannot be safe anywhere to live, the centers provide shelter for five days at a time, a period that can be extended by the district administration. A female constable center is posted in round-the-clock.
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Parhar said, “The idea behind installing these centers was to ensure that women who have faced violence or misconduct to contact such an office without any fear, if they are afraid of going directly to the police,” Parihar said that women are able to help indicate the needs of women and such centers. Indore district has two functional centers.
Across the country, a total of 888 one stop centers have been approved so far, according to a report submitted by a parliamentary standing committee earlier this year, and 802 are on.
The committee had expressed concern over the “Undertaking” of funds under schemes like One Stop Center and Women Helpline and also asked for the “proper training” of the personnel deployed at these centers, and asked that the center should be staffed according to the population density of one area.
(Reporter was in Indore at the invitation of the Ministry of Women and Child Development)
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