Rape cell: No proposal from Delhi, West Bengal

New Delhi: West Bengal and Delhi are the only two states, which have not shown interest in the Centre’s one stop centre (OSC) scheme for survivors of sexual crimes, according to official data.

This is despite New Delhi being ranked fifth in terms of total number of sexual offences in the country and West Bengal ranking seventh, according to National Crime Records Bureau data for 2015.

The scheme is intended for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, acid attacks and honour crimes and aims to provide them medical, legal and psychological support, all under one roof.

The reluctance on the part of the two state governments comes while the Centre has persisted with all the other states and union territories (UTs) to set up rape crisis cells or OSCs. 

As a result of this push, their numbers have gone up from a mere 16 last year to 151 until July 2017, according to official records of the Union women and child development ministry.

“We have sent repeated reminders to all the states, but these (West Bengal and Delhi) are the only two states, which have not sent a proposal to us,” said a ministry official on condition of anonymity.

When contacted, a source in the West Bengal government led by chief minister Mamata Bane-rjee said that the decision to not execute this programme in the state is a political one. 

“This is not how we intend to proceed. We have also not planned anything under the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme of the Centre. 

“In order to implement these schemes, we have to spend our own money apart from the funds from Centre. We don’t have that kind of money. But we are already implementing our own programme, Kanya-shree scheme, for the girl child. The decision to not implement the OSC scheme is not an administrative decision, but a political one,” said another official on condition of anonymity.

The West Bengal government’s Kanyashree scheme is a conditional cash transfer scheme which aims at retaining girls in schools and delaying their marriage until the age of 18.

The Delhi government, on its part, has set up 11 centres at various hospitals under its own scheme and plans to have 11 more in place, but blamed the bureaucracy for delay in implementation.

“The government had asked the officials to hand over the work of OSCs to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) a year ago, but it is quite unfortunate that the bureaucracy is still sitting on the file,” it said.

Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last year in a bid to push for implementation of the programme. The central government had announced the scheme in April, 2015 under the famous Nirbhaya Fund, which envisaged setting up of 36 such centres across the country.