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.

Dr Sharma said measures would also be taken to ensure that the victim is counselled, said Dr Sharma.

Madhya Pradesh will now be the second state after Maharashtra to introduce rape evidence collection kits. The United Nations Population Fund had helped the Maharashtra government to launch the programme in 2004.

The training in district hospitals and community health centres will begin in October. The trained medical practitioners will further train other hospital staff, said Dr Sharma.