The Uttar Pradesh government has announced measures designed to bring back minor rape victims into the social mainstream and help them get over the mental, physical and psychological trauma of the incident.
According to principal home secretary R.M. Srivastava, all district magistrates and district police chiefs have been asked to set up counselling cells in their districts to help victims cope with the rape trauma syndrome.
These centres will be set up in all districts and will help the rape victims with all possible help, even medical and legal.
For improved conviction rate and better police-public equation, the officers have also been asked to set up teams comprising legal experts, doctors, social activists and psychologists to ensure that a victim does not suffer on any front after the incident. NGOs will also be identified and involved in this exercise and every police station will display the name of the NGO, its telephone number and the name of the nodal person prominently.
Mr Srivastava said that police officers, particularly those involved closely with the entire exercise, have been asked to go through the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, thoroughly to safeguard and protect rights of child sexual abuse victims.
Seminars and workshops will be organised from time to time to sensitise the police personnel on the various aspects of atrocities and crimes against women. A programme to study the legal aspects of the situation is also being prepared and experts in various related fields will be invited to address these events.
The state government is also going to focus on slum-dwellings and undeveloped urban clusters where children are more susceptible to sex-related crimes.
The state government has also decided to firm up policing and check crime against women.