This December we mark 11 years of the gang rape and death of Jyoti Singh – or Nirbhaya. As a response to the Delhi 2012 incident, the government started the Nirbhaya Fund and Nirbhaya centres across the country. In this episode, we look at what women want versus what they get. 

Today, there are over 733 Nirbhaya Centres–or One-Stop Crisis Centres–across India; one in every district. However, these centres rarely function as hospital-based crisis centres i.e., they often operate in parallel with the police rather than in coordination with the hospitals. Experts say this is a missed opportunity, as hospitals–not the police–are the first point of contact for survivors. Hospitals are safe spaces and women are more likely to reach out for help here. 

In this episode, Mahima Jain visits the One-Stop Crisis Center inside the District Women’s Hospital in Akola, Maharashtra. This centre has used it's position as an opportunity to help violence survivors. With the help of its (now former) Medical Superintendent Dr Arati Kulwal, this Nirbhaya Center works with the hospital staff to identify survivors and help them. The hospital staff too was trained to identify signs and symptoms of gender-based violence. Is it time to relook how Nirbhaya Centers function? Let’s listen to how Akola’s One-Stop Crisis Center works, and the lessons all Nirbhaya Centres can learn from it.

Global database India on violence against women 

Crime in India – 2021 - SNAPSHOTS (States/UTs)

Reporting, script, and narration: Mahima Jain 

Editing: Menaka Rao 

Production: Rakesh Kamal 

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. 

Read other stories from the Pulitzer Center project here: India’s Health Care Response to Gender-Based Violence