Guj gets highest number of distress calls

Over four lakh women in Gujarat called on government’s women helpline number 180 in the last three years. Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh received maximum number of complaints by women at government One Stop Centres (OSCs) with 26,884 and 21,747 complaints, respectively.

According to Union women and child development ministry’s data till November 2018, 193,527 OSC cases in total have been registered, while 2,023,111 effective calls on government’s women helpline number were registered since 2015 across all states and Union territories.

The OSCs are intended to support women affected by violence, in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at workplace. Women facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse are facilitated with support and redressal at these centres. “The ministry has sanctioned over 600 OSCs till now, of which 232 are operational so far. The Prime Minister had said there should be one in all 718 districts of India,” said Rakesh Srivastava, secretary, WCD ministry.

The scheme for universalisation of women helpline was implemented from April 2015 to provide 24x7 response. The women helpline at Gujarat received 435,378 complaints by women till November, while Uttar Pradesh got 314,455, Bihar (377,917), Andhra Pradesh (393,676), Telangana (275,324) and Punjab (106,622). “We got 480,000 calls (till Friday), in which 25.61% cases are of domestic violence...,” said an official at helpline.

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