OSCs for women & child awaits regig
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n initiative launched under the 'Nirbhaya Fund' and dedicated to the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim, OSC was envisaged to provide support and assistance to women affected by violence and in distress under one roof. These centres provide an integrated range of services, including medical and legal aid, advice, temporary shelter for up to five days, police assistance, and psychological counselling to needy women.
Any woman in distress can seek help from these centres through the telephone helpline number 181, and rescued women are often brought to these centres by the police.
In line with many OSCs set up across the country, Jharkhand also opened its doors to the victims of physical and sexual violence by setting up the first OSC in Feb 2016 at the Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS).
Later, the number of such centres across the state grew to 24, one in each district.
However, nearly a decade after the establishment of the first OSC in the state, many centres in Jharkhand are currently struggling to function effectively due to critical infrastructural gaps and staff shortage, severely undermining the purpose of their set-up.
While the state's first OSC at RINPAS has catered to a total of 599 cases till June this year since its inception, the centre is currently facing a staff shortage.
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Against the 12 sanctioned posts at the OSC, the centre is functioning with just seven employees.
"Staff crunch has been an obstacle to the smooth functioning of the centre. However, the centre has been providing the best services to the survivors. They are provided with food, shelter, clothes, legal aid, psychological counselling and all other sorts of facilities without fail. At present, 11 women are taking shelter at the centre," a source at the centre said
Similarly, Dhanbad's OSC is functioning without a dedicated building.
Currently, it operates from a single room in the Red Cross Society building at Khadeshwari Mandir Road. A member at the centre, Poonam Singh, informed that land has already been identified for permanently relocating the centre, and allocation will be done soon.
"Despite the space constraint, the centre ensures proper care for women victims. There are separate rooms for accommodation, and kitchen facilities are available inside the Red Cross building," said Poonam, adding that food arrangements are made for the women and female guards have been deployed for round-the-clock security.
The OSC in Hazaribag is functional in a double-storey building on the campus of Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College and Hospital, situated on the Main road in Hazaribag city. But the 10-bed facility has also been running with officials on deputation, without permanent employees.
At the same time, the OSC in Koderma, operational since 2019, has handled 223 cases as of July 2025, with the majority involving domestic violence, according to Archana Jwala, who heads the centre.
Archana, who managed the centre single-handedly for the first four years, shared that two staff members joined her only a year ago to assist in the growing workload. Despite the limited manpower, she continues to provide critical support to the women in distress.
"We are doing our best with the resources we have. Since 2019, the work has been challenging but fulfilling. Most cases that come to us are related to domestic abuse," she stressed.
Archana also highlighted that awareness programmes for adolescent girls are being conducted regularly across all blocks in Koderma district. These sessions aim to educate girls on their rights and empower them to seek help when needed.
Although 12 posts have been sanctioned for the OSC, only a few have been filled so far. "If more staff are deployed, we will be able to extend our outreach and improve the quality of services," Archana added.
In a recent survey done by Women Gaining Ground (WGG), a global organisation that supports victims of sexual and gender-based violence, along with a Jharkhand-based organisation 'Youth Unity for Voluntary Action' (YUVA), highlights the obstacles the OSCs in Jharkhand are grappling with, including inadequate funding, poor infrastructure and acute staff shortages.
"The very institutions that were meant to serve as safe havens for women in distress are in distress themselves.
The lack of basic amenities and trained personnel, coupled with the lack of awareness among the women that they can seek help in these centres, is deteriorating the condition of the centres. In the centres surveyed, we found that there were no staff members, including the amenities provided to the distressed women," said Anjana Deogam, project coordinator of the survey.
Notably, the problem persists not only in Jharkhand OSCs but in centres of many other states in the country.
These OSCs are not physically-challenged friendly, as the centres are set up in multi-storey buildings. Apart from this, many centres lack security personnel to ensure the safety of the survivors. The absence of a women's commission in Jharkhand for a long period has also fuelled the organisational lacunas.
In addition to the organisational shortcomings, a major concern is that rural women have yet to benefit meaningfully from these centres. Barnali Chatterjee, the executive secretary of YUVA, remarked, "Currently, there are no such centres in villages, making it difficult for rural women to access help even when they face abuse. In many cases, families prefer to keep such incidents hidden from the community and resolve them privately, which further hinders women from seeking proper support.
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(With inputs from Vishvendu Jaipuriar, Sharad Chandra & Manoj Kumar)
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