Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi writes to all Ministries to set up special cells on women’s issues

New Delhi: 193 One Stop Centres (OSCs), popularly known as Sakhi Centres are functional across the country.  Speaking during the foundation laying ceremony of Advanced DNA laboratory in Chandigarh today, the WCD Minister said that 193 Sakhi Centres have been established in the country for the Women affected by violence.  The Minister added that the number of One Stop Centres would be increased to more than 600 by the next year.  The successful cases of OSCswill be recorded and would be used for creating wider awareness so that more women can avail benefits of these Sakhi Centres, she added.

The Minister also pointed out that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently created special division to address the issues of women safety.  The WCD Minister has written to all the Ministries to create the similar division.  The Minister further shared that MHA is creating National Repository of Sexual Offenders.  The profile of sexual offenders on this repository would be shared with the State/UTs.

Highlighting the projects appraised under Nirbhaya Fund, the Minister thanked the Prime Minister for giving the utmost priority to womensafety and security, and said that projects worth more than Rs. 6,000 crores have been appraised under Nirbhaya Fund by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Speaking on the disputes in NRI marriages, the Minister said that WCD Ministry is in the process of issuing orders to the Registrars that NRI marriages have to be registeredwithin 48 hours else the passport/visas would not be issued.  The registrars would send the details of such NRI marriages to the WCD Ministry so that a Central database can be maintained.  She also said that any women can approach the WCD Ministry in case of being deceived or cheated by NRI husbands.  The Ministry has recently issued 6 Look Out Circulars in such cases and in 5 cases, passports have been revoked by the Ministry of External Affairs.