Norms made for sensitisation on date rape drugs

The court had said it was a matter of concern that women are being drugged for the purpose of rape

A set of guidelines has been prepared for sensitising people on “date rape drugs,” the Delhi Commission for Women ( DCW) has informed a court.

DCW has filed a report in the court following its last year’s judgment in a rape case in which it had expressed concern over the increase in number of cases where women were administered drugs and then sexually exploited.

The court had stressed on the need for sensitising people on the issue of “date rape drugs” and had asked DCW to take up this issue with competent authorities including the Delhi police commissioner and the Delhi government.

Advocate Vandana Chauhan, appearing for DCW, said in the report that the commission had sent letters to various departments and department of women and child has constituted an advisory committee of experts on prohibition of drug abuse.

“The committee expressed serious concern over date rape drugs. The advisory committee was of the view that school and college students and general public need to be made aware of the misuse of such drugs,” the report said.

“The advisory committee prepared a set of guidelines which enumerate the precautionary steps which should be taken by the potential victims. These guidelines have been circulated to various educational authorities,” it said.

It also said the committee includes representatives from AIIMS’s Nation Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, Department of Education, Chairman of Health Care Foundation of India, psychologist and officers of department of women and child department and prohibition.

The court had passed the judgement in February last year while awarding 10 years jail term to a youth for raping a girl, known to her, after giving her drugs and blackmailing her by making indecent videos.

It said the guidelines received from these departments have been circulated to 90 mahila panchayats and 11 crisis intervention centres, working in the field, for spreading awareness to the community level about date rape drugs.

The court had said it was a matter of concern that women are being drugged for the purpose of rape, through use of odourless, tasteless incapacitating drugs that leads to memory loss for that period and these drugs are freely available in the market.

“The issue relating to free availability and sale of date rape drugs is a matter of national concern being an important subject connected with women health and safety. “It is a known fact that detection of these drugs is a difficult issue and unless a victim of drug facilitated sexual assault seeks medical care within 72 hours of the assault, it is less likely that the tests would successfully detect the presence of these drugs, since most of them eliminate from the body, resulting into a negative report,” it had said.

Due to the effect of these drugs, it is difficult for the victims to know if they consented or not for the act, it had said. The court, in a judgement, had said the country’s criminal justice system was “not as updated” as it should be and there was an urgent need to sensitise the investigating officers, prosecutors, hospital staff and public on the aspect of “date rape drugs”. It had said that testing of date rape drugs should be made a compulsory part of the rape kit while collecting exhibits in the hospital.