After being downsised by the Government from 640 centres to 34, the Woman and Child Development Ministry’s One-Stop Centres (OSC), to aid physically abused women will finally see the light of the day. The WCD Ministry had finalised the guidelines to support agencies involved in implementing the project. To be funded from the Nirbhaya corpus, these centres will be established in all States to provide integrated support under one roof to women affected by violence.
“In the first phase, one OSC will initially be established in each State and Union Territory to facilitate access to an integrated range of services including medical, legal, and psychological support,” said an official from the WCD Ministry. “The OSC will be integrated with 181 and other existing helplines. The scheme is being implemented through States and Union Territories from April 1, 2015,” he said.
“All the OSC’s are expected to follow a common monitoring mechanism at various levels. There are directions for fund flow, reporting and standard operating procedures for handholding of women at these centres,” said the official. “The states and UTs will be given a prescribed proforma, for the submission of proposal for the establishment OSCs. The proposals of States/UTs will be examined by a Programme Approval Board (PAB) to be constituted in WCD ministry,” he said.
The PAB will be headed by the Secretary and will include financial advisor (WCD), additional secretary or joint secretary, director WCD, representative from the state and experts decided by the ministry. The PAB shall be the final authority for accepting, reviewing, and sanctioning of proposals for assistance under the scheme.
