NEW DELHI: As part of a series of measures to combat crimes against women through timely investigations, the Bureau of Police Research and Development has so far shared nearly 14,000 sexual assault evidence collection kits at the sub-division level across states, including over 3,000 kits to training centres for orientation on using them effectively.
It has now been decided that the BPR&D which comes under the ministry of home affairs will carry out a mapping exercise to establish the exact number of police stations that need to be given these kits, procured under the Nirbhaya Fund.
The ministry of women and child development along with the MHA is also working on a plan to integrate all existing women helplines through a centralised process to enable faster, standardised outreach and accountability even if callers use different helpline numbers to reach out for help.
Even the national helpline for children in distress “Childline -1098” is set for a revamp with the ministry of women and child working on an integration model with the MHA to create a direct interface with police for swifter action in complaints linked to violence. The MHA already has a monitoring and tracking system for missing kids.
These plans to create a convergence framework for nutrition, health, safety and all other concerns involving district level administration, police and child welfare authorities at the grassroots were discussed at a seminar chaired by women and child development minister Smriti Irani on Monday.
The seminar focussed on 112 aspirational districts and 100 districts with the highest crime rate as per NCRB data for 2019. The top five districts with the highest number of crimes against women and kids as per NCRB include Mumbai:10,159; Bengaluru city: 4,974; Cyberabad: 4,059; Lucknow: 3,390 and Indore: 3,369.