One Stop Crisis Centre

One Stop Crisis Centres are intended to support the women who are affected by violence, in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace. The women who are facing any kind of violence due to attempted sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, honour-related crimes, acid attacks, or witch-hunting, One Stop Crisis Centre will provide the specialized services.  So, physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse faced by women, irrespective of age, class, caste, education status, marital status, race, and culture will be facilitated and redressal in OSC’s. The OSC’s also support girls below 18 years of age. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) launched the One-Stop Crisis Centres (OSCs) scheme on 1st April 2015.

One Stop Crisis Centre

Objective of The One Stop Crisis Centre:  

• The scheme’s primary goal is to support women who have experienced abuse in public or private settings, including the neighbourhood around their homes, the workplace, or anywhere else in the community.
• Regardless of caste, creed, ethnicity, class, level of education, age, culture, or marital status, this scheme offers help and remedy for women who experience sexual, physical, psychological, emotional, or economic abuse.
• Giving the afflicted ladies rapid, emergency, and non-emergency help, including legal, medical, and psychological counselling services

Phases of Implementation:

Under this scheme, three phases had been launched. These are

• First Phase: One OSC’s is envisaged to be established in each State/UT to facilitate access to an integrated range of services including medical, legal, and psychological support
• Second Phase: The 150 additional centres are taken up during this phase from 2016-17, in addition to 36 Centres in the first phase.
• Third Phase: Further, 50 additional One Stop Centres (OSC’s) shall be established during the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-2020.
• International OSC’s: The One-Stop Center (OSC) will be developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs by establishing OSCs in ten nations from 2021. These are Australia, Canada, Singapore, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

Diagrammatic Overview of One Stop Centre

The Following Services Facilitate by One Stop Crisis Centre:

• EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND RESCUE SERVICES: The OSC’s provide rescue and referral services to the women affected by violence. For this, linkages will be developed with existing mechanisms such as National Health Mission(NHM),108 services, and police (PCR Van) so that the women affected by referred to the nearest medical facility (Public/ Private) or shelter home.
• MEDICAL ASSISTANCE: Women affected by violence would be referred to the nearest hospital for medical aid/examination which would be undertaken as per the guidelines and protocols developed by the Ministry of Health and Family.
• POLICE: The OSC will facilitate the lodging of FIR/NCR/DIR.
• PSYCHO-SOCIAL SUPPORT/ COUNSELLING: A skilled counsellor provide psycho-social counselling service, which would be available on call. This counselling process will give confidence and support to address violence or to seek justice for the violence.
• LEGAL AID AND COUNSELLING: To facilitate access to justice for women affected by violence, legal aid counselling would be provided at OSC through the state/ district legal service authority. The aggrieved woman would be provided with an advocate of her choice in case she wants to engage the same to assist the state prosecutors in trying her case. It would be the responsibility of the lawyer/ prosecutor to simplify legal procedures for the aggrieved woman and advocate for her exemption from court hearings.
• SHELTER: The OSC will provide a temporary shelter facility to aggrieved women. For the long-term shelter requirements and arrangements will be made by swadhargreh/short-stay homes. The women who are affected by violence along with their children (girls of all ages and boys up to 8 years of age) can avail themselves of a temporary shelter at the SCG for a maximum period of 5 days. 

Related Frequently Asked Questions and Answers:

1Q.  How many One Stop Crisis Centres are there in India?

Answer:  There are 234 One Stop Centres (OSCs) at present in the country and 1,90,527 women impacted by savagery offered help. 

2Q. Who launched One Stop Crisis Centre?

Answer: The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has launched the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSC).

3Q. When did the One Stop Crisis Centre was launched?

Answer:  One-Stop Crisis Center was launched on 1st April 2015. The significant point of the plan is to work with admittance to a large number of administrations to ladies impacted by brutality.

4. What services does the One Stop Crisis Centre offer?

Answer:  The One-Stop Crisis Center offers the following services under one roof (i) Emergency Response and Rescue Services, (ii) Medical assistance, (iii) psychosocial support, (iv) police, (v) Legal aid and counselling, (vi) Shelter.

5. How psycho-social counselling service helps the women in the One Stop Crisis Centre?

Answer: A skilled counsellor provide psycho-social counselling service, which would be available on call. This counselling process will give confidence and support to address violence or to seek justice for the violence.