State’s first ‘Sakhi’ centre without staff

Parveen arora

tribune News Service

Karnal, July 25

Haryana’s first one-stop centre for women ‘Sakhi’ is running without regular and contractual staff for the last three and a half months, causing problems to victims of sexual assault, dowry and domestic violence.

‘Sakhi’ is an ambitious project of the Union government under the Nirbhaya Fund for providing police, medical and legal help to such victims. Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain had inaugurated the centre on August 31, 2015.

At present, all 11 sanctioned posts are lying vacant. Notably, there is one post each for centre administrator, legal-cum-case worker, psycho-social counsellor, IT professional, and two posts of para-medical staff member and multi-purpose helper and three posts of security guard. However, neither regular nor contractual staff members have been appointed to look after the day-to-day working of the centre since April 1, 2019. The tenure of the contractual staff was completed on March 31 and no staff member was appointed after that, said sources.

The severe staff crunch came to light on Wednesday when Hitesh Garg, CJM and Secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), visited the centre and found it without staff. After some time, an employee of the District Child Protection Unit came to apprise the CJM of the centre.

The CJM also noted that there was no video-conferencing facility available at the centre. After the visit, the CJM conveyed to Deputy Commissioner Vinay Partap the problems being faced at the centre.

The sources claimed that earlier the appointments were made by the DC, but now the women and child development department appointed the staff.

“If any victim comes at night, the chowkidar of a nearby office informs the protection officer of the District Child Protection Unit, who then attends to them,” the sources added.

Initially, the centre was started in a building of women and child development department, but now it is in a new building, which has a counselling room, six-bed shelter for inmates, kitchen, office for the staff and living facility for the centre administrator.

Suman Nain, Protection Officer, said she had been given additional charge to look after the centre. “I try my best to solve problems of the victims coming here with the help of a counsellor from Nari Niketan and the DLSA,” she said, adding that one woman attendant of Nari Niketan and one woman pharmacist have also been given additional charge to look after the inmates if any one comes in at night. She claimed that 1,411 victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and other crimes had approached the centre since its inception. Since April 1, 161 victims had approached them.