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BHAROSA was established in May 2016, at Hyderabad as a Society for Protection of Women and Children with logistic help, funding and support from the Department of Women and Child Development, Telangana. Anyone knocking on the doors of BHAROSA will have immediate access to specialized services. Assistance is provided in an integrated manner through a slew of police, medical, legal, and prosecution services, apart from psychotherapeutic counselling. This multi-pronged assistance culminates in relief and rehabilitation as per the requirements.
Sexual offences have been on the rise in the country throughout the years. While the government recognized the necessity for a particular law to deal with crimes against children and enacted the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), its implementation needed major support on the ground.
According to the report, up to 3,000 POCSO instances are registered and investigated each year, and four child victims of sexual assault are denied justice every day because their cases are closed by police owing to insufficient evidence or a lack of a clue.
According to a KSCF review of POCSO cases from the same time period (2017 to 2019), there is an urgent need for courts to speed up the justice delivery process, since victims of up to 89 % of child sexual abuse cases
were still awaiting justice by the end of 2019. The conviction rate in POCSO cases needs to be improved by better presentation of cases in courts, as effective identification and conviction are the measures for crime prevention. This highlights the importance of social actions in the states to better protect children both in home and in society.
Following the guidelines in POCSO Act, Bharosa-Support Centre for Women and Children set up a Special Child Friendly Court with all due permissions and directions from the High Court of Telangana. This Child Friendly Court was inaugurated on 7th April 2018 by Justice Madan B Lokur, Hon’ble Justice, Supreme Court of India. During the year 2020, convictions were awarded in 27 cases. Conviction rate in 2014 was 4% in POCSO cases and has increased to 30% in 2019-2020. Uniform process to work is achieved through a common application.
“Bharosa” is an integrated Support Centre for Women & Children affected by violence. The purpose is to facilitate all kinds of support, redressal and rehabilitation for women and children facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse, irrespective of age, class, caste, education, marital status, race and culture. In this regard, Bharosa centers at Hyderabad and Vikarabad were established in the year 2016 and 2018 respectively. Subsequently, during the year 2020, Bharosa Centers at Warangal and Sangareddy were established on 20.06.2020 and 29.09.2020 respectively. Renovation/construction work is operational at Bharosa Centres at Nalgonda, Suryapet, Medchal, Malkajgiri, Khammam, Old City (Hyderabad), Cyberabad and Rachakonda (Under Safe City project).
As per the guidelines given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the Ministry of Home Affairs, a Special Task Force was constituted in the WSW to monitor the investigation in both UI and P.T cases of POCSO Act. The Task Force will monitor the cases to ensure that the investigation will be completed within 2 months and trial of the cases to be completed within 2 months. The monitoring will be done through data on CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems) and will be located at the head office of the Women Safety wing. The main objective of the Task Force is to ensure timely & quality investigation of the POCSO Act & rape cases by setting up processes with ‘CCTNS’ as the platform. As a result of the monitoring the pendency of UI cases has come down, especially the long pending UI cases have been finalised.
In the Writ Petition (Civil) No.565 of 2012, W.P.(Crl.)Nos 1,22 148 of 2013, SLP (Crl.) Crl.M.P.No.16041/2014 and W.P(C) No.568 of 2012 decided on 11.12.2018 in the case of Nipun Saxena and Ors. Vs. Union of India(UOI) and Ors. consisting Madan B.Lokur and Deepak Gupta.
SKOCH Order-Of-Merit – Silver by the Skoch Group was awarded to the Hyderabad City Police for qualifying amongst the Top Ranking Police & Emergency Services Projects in India for BHAROSA on 25th February 2019 at New Delhi.
Tharuni NGO
mamatha[at]tharuni[dot]org
#27, Nagarajuna Colony
Vyshalinagar Post, Champapet
Hyderabad–500079
www.tharuni.org
The Awareness programs aim to help children identify such abuse, understand who and how to report when such an incident happens. The program also emphasises on the psychological impact of a traumatic incident and the importance of psychological care and counselling. The community Awareness programs include topics on Domestic violence, and other forms of abuse, reporting and Legal rights of women and children.
Bharosa has a well trained team of Outreach Social Workers who address any incidents reported while conducting the awareness programs in schools and communities. Since its inception, Bharosa Outreach team has conducted over 192 awareness programs in schools, colleges and communities covering over 20000 people.
Bharosa also has undertaken training and awareness workshops for its stakeholders including other NGOs, Police Personnel, Government Doctors conducting medical examinations for evidence, Public Prosecutors and MEPMA field officers. In order to help teachers in understanding the implications of child sexual abuse, a series of training programs for teachers was undertaken in 2018 October.
