Delhi women’s panel issues notice to Health Department over delays in medical examination of sexual assault survivors
India Today
DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal has issued the notice to the Government of NCT of Delhi over long delays in conducting medical examination of sexual assault survivors at hospitals in the national capital.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued a notice to the Health Department, Delhi government over long delays in conducting medical examination of sexual assault survivors at hospitals in Delhi.
DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal has issued the notice to the Government of NCT of Delhi.
The Commission assists all survivors of sexual assault through its Rape Crisis Cell and Crisis Intervention Centre programs and provides psychological and legal assistance to the survivors of sexual assault. The counsellors of the commission remain present in the hospitals during the medical examination of survivors to provide them support during this process.
In this regard, the Commission has observed undue delays in conducting the medical examination of survivors, as per it. For instance, it took almost 15 hours to conduct medical examination of a sexual assault survivor in Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, 12 hours in Lok Nayak Hospital and 8.5 hours in Safdarjang Hospital, DCW said.
On an average, a rape survivor is made to wait for hours for her medical examination in the hospitals in the Capital, as per DCW.
The undue delay in conducting medical examination causes extreme harassment to the survivor, who is already going through mental trauma due to the offence committed upon her. Therefore, the Commission taking suo moto cognizance in the matter has issued a notice to the Health Department seeking reasons for the delay.
It has sought data to assess whether resources, both infrastructural and human resource have been allotted specifically for the purpose of medical examination of rape survivors or is drawn for other branches. DCW has also sought details of the process followed by the hospitals to give priority to the survivors of rape, standard timelines in which the examination must happen and action taken against the officers if the medical examination is not conducted within the desired time frame.
