In a bid to aid district hospitals and community health centres to help solve rape cases, which often fall through owing to lack of standard guidelines and sexual assault forensic evidence kits, Madhya Pradesh government, in collaboration with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has decided to introduce the kits here. The rape evidence kits will be equipped with culture plates, special seals to carry pubic hair, nail clippers, sterile swabs etc.

A team of doctors from the IMA will train the gynaecologists and female medical officers in five districts to be covered in the first phase, Director of Public Health and Family Welfare Dr Yogiraj Sharma told The Indian Express on Saturday.

Indore, Jabalpur, Guna, Vidisha and Sagar districts have been chosen as pilot districts, as they have reported maximum rape and molestation cases in the last few years, said Dr Sharma.

Statistics show that while Sagar reported 1,135 rape cases and 3,818 molestation cases between 1998 and 2004, Guna reported 901 and 2,444 cases respectively during that period.

Jabalpur reported 899 rape cases and 2,768 molestation cases while Vidisha recorded 812 and 2,309 cases respectively. There have been 735 rape cases between 1998 and 2004, and 2,309 molestation cases recorded in Indore. Conviction rate in these five districts has been very low.

In fact, the Government has admitted that victims don’t come forward to register complaints on their own due to social reasons.

The other component of the programme will include the management of victims of sexual assaults. The Health Department had submitted the programme to the Union Government under the National Reproductive and Child Health Programme and got their approval.

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