Bhubaneswar: In order to address ever increasing crime and violence against women, children and elderly persons in the state, the state government Tuesday notified a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to deal with cases of gender-based violence (GBV).
As per the SOP protocols and
guidelines, all hospitals (private and government) are legally bound to
provide first-aid or medical treatment free-of-cost to the victim in a GBV case.
The police have to be informed about the incident. As per the guidelines, non-reporting of cases of sexual offences against minors will be additionally punishable under section 21 (1) of POCSO Act 2012.
Survivors of sexual violence will receive all services free-of-cost which includes OPD/inpatient registration, laboratory and radiology investigations, urine pregnancy test (UPT), medicines and other operative procedures. To ensure this, doctors must have to mark the case papers of sexual violence case as ‘Free’ so that treatment is provided without any costs.
The SOP mandates hospital registration section to have separate counters for women, persons with disability and senior citizens.
As per SOP, hospitals must designate the doctor of a GBV case responsible for handling evidence and no other person must have access to these samples. The doctors will be held responsible for the preservation and packaging of the sample and their handover to police or investigating officer for forensic investigation.
Meanwhile, the SOP has authorised the district health vigilance and monitoring committees, district quality assurance committee and Rogi Kalyan Samiti to visit the OPDs and wards on occasions and report if any lapses are found on part of the hospital. It has recommended action against such lapses.
The government has directed all hospitals to strengthen the complaint redressal system of health facilities.
The SOP further states that if a good Samaritan takes a GBV case to hospital, he/she should not be detained and allowed to leave the hospital after furnishing his/her identity and contact number.
As per the SOP the statutory and legal framework of GBV cases can be tackled through various provisions such as IPC 1860, code of criminal procedure (CrPC) 1973, The Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013, Protection of women from domestic violence Act 2005 and Protection of children from sexual offences act 2012 among others.
Officials said the guidelines were issued on the concurrence of home, law and women & child development departments.
The breach of protocols in SOP by officials can be brought to the notice of superintendent/ ADMO/SDMO/MO of the medical colleges and hospitals and DHHs as well as CHCs for appropriate action.
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