Soon the staff crunches in Gurugram's One-stop centre (OSC), meant to help women victims of violence, will be resolved soon. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, who was in the city, told The Pioneer that the vacant posts in the OSC will soon be filled.

As of now, the centre is running without Paramedics, Legal assistance, Counsellors and other staff. "The matter has now come to my knowledge and the issue of staff crunch at the centres across Haryana will be resolved soon. The centres in the state will soon have a well-experienced staff to help distressed women," Vij said. The OSC comes under the women and child development (WCD) department.

To provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by any kind of violence, the Central Government had approved setting up of six more "One Stop Centres" in Haryana.

At present, a "One-Stop Center" is functional at the Civil Lines near Nehru Stadium in Gurugram. In the last four months, as many as 45 cases including domestic violence, child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, missing, kidnapping & abduction have been received at the Gurugram centre.

"The women in distress can dial 181 which is a centre helpline number. Once a woman dials 181, a Durga shakti police patrolling vehicle from the closest location is despatched along with a field worker and a woman police constable to escort the victim," said Pinki Malik, centre administrative officer. "We closely follow-up the cases so that the victims can get justice," she added.

The centre provides specialized services to aggrieved women facing any kind of violence due to attempted sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, honour-related crimes, acid attacks or witch-hunting irrespective of their age, class, caste, educational status, marital status, race and culture.

Malik said that this helpline is exclusively designed to support women in distress facing violence or threat of violence both in private and public spaces including in the family, community and workplace.