Violent crime: First facilitation centre for women in March

First of these centres to be launched in Multan on International Women’s Day.

LAHORE:

The government is planning to launch its first Violence Against Women Centre (VAWC) in Multan on March 8. 

A steering committee, formed on directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discuss the financial and legal aspects of VAWCs, met for the second time on Monday. The committee, comprising 16 senior government officials, is chaired by the ministers for home and population welfare.

The committee decided to table a bill in the Punjab Assembly in the first week of March to establish of VAWCs in the province.  They also decided that 12 Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women Centres (Crisis Centres) would be converted to VAWCs to avoid an overlap.

The committee set up an implementation committee on Monday comprising representatives of the special monitoring unit; the Women’s Development Department; the Social Welfare Department; the Law, Finance and Home Departments; the Punjab Information Technology Board; and several lawmakers. This committee will monitor the functioning of these centres. An SMU official told The Express Tribune that work on drafting the bill had begun and was expected to be completed towards the end of February. The VAWC project was granted approval by the chief minister in the first week of February. The project includes upgrades for shelter homes where required.

A study conducted by SAP-Pakistan Multan Coordinator Sultan Mahmood, said domestic violence and crimes against women were most rampant against women in south Punjab districts, and the state of affairs in shelter homes “heart-rending”.

Mahmood stressed the need for good governance in order to improve the state of women in these districts. He deplored the state of shelter homes saying they lacked basic health and hygiene facilities. He said the posts of physiologists and doctors at these shelter homes had been lying vacant for several years.

The study also recommended increasing the budget of shelter homes and creating an umbrella organisation for all such institutions.

According to a briefing given to the chief minister earlier this month, “six women are victims of murder or attempted murder, eight are raped, 11 are assaulted and 32 are abducted in the Punjab every day”. The CM was told that the conviction rate in these cases was below 2.5 per cent. He was told that many cases went unreported because most people mistrusted the police and complained of lack of cooperation in filing complaints. Sharif was told that apart from an inefficient process of investigation, cultural constraints shared the blame for increasing incidents of violence against women.

The SMU proposed establishing VAWCs at the tehsil-level. They would be open 24-hours and would be run by women. Victims visiting VAWCs would be provided help by police, doctors, forensic experts and psychologists under one roof.

SMU Senior Member Salman Sufi said the investigation process was also dragged down by the requirement of obtaining a medico-legal certificate after the registration of an FIR. He said while registering an FIR, the police exercises discretion in deciding what sections of the law to proceed under. This, he said, often resulted in weakening cases of crimes against women. Poor performance of the Prosecution Department and lack of sufficient evidence was also one of the reasons the conviction rate was so low, he said.

He said the government aimed to provide women doctors, legal counsel and means of reprisal under one roof at the VAMCs. “This will ensure that they do not undergo the psychologically taxing ordeal of dealing with the police on their own.”

Soofi said that they were currently working on SOPs for the VAWCs. “The initiative sends a message from the government – if you commit violence against women, your days outside of prison are numbered.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2015.