Stock depleting,hospitals await kits to examine rape victims

A doctor from Sardar Patel hospital in Patel Nagar told government officials,including minister for women and child development Kiran Walia,that with no government supply,the hospital had last purchased these kits with their local budget soon after the HC order.

“This year most of these kits have expired,and there is no new budget allocation for them. Thankfully,we have not got any sexual assault case so far this year,but what should we do if we get any case?” she questioned.

Without the kits,many hospitals,which until recently also included AIIMS,were preserving evidence like vaginal swabs,cervical mucus and nail scrapings in test tubes wrapped in surgical gloves,the victim’s clothes in plastic coverings or simple paper sealed with haphazardly put Leukoplast adhesive tapes.

“The CEHAT kit contains simple tools like a white chart paper,where a victim can be made to stand so that every evidence can be preserved. Sometimes crucial evidence like garments or ornaments get lost in the confusion in hospitals — so the idea is to have everything drop on the white chart paper. There are air- and water-tight tubes with sealed coverings,and wooden sticks for nail scrapings,to ensure no samples get damaged,” a doctor from AIIMS trauma centre explained.

Representatives of NGO Pratidhi explained that in the early 2000s,long before the HC order,the kits were made mandatory by the Delhi Police in a voluntary initiative,where it became the responsibility of the police to distribute the kits to hospitals. “But this provision was withdrawn in subsequent orders as investigating officers failed to deliver these kits for every case of assault. After the HC order in 2009,to my mind it is the responsibility of the health department and hospitals to procure these kits,” Raaj Mangal Prasad from Pratidhi explained.

Doctors also mooted the idea of use of anesthesia to examine victims,particularly children. A forensic science specialist from AIIMS said that the practice at the institute had been to take all child victims to the operation theatre and anesthetise them.

“For examination in cases of suspected sexual assault,we need to see the vaginal opening and all the way to urethra and urethral opening. Considering how painful this would be even for a normal child,you can imagine how terrible it would be for a child who has just undergone the trauma of assault. We have stopped examining children in the casualty now,and instead straight away take them to the operation theatre.”

The continuing use of the controversial per vaginal test,popularly known as finger test,was also discussed.

Kiran Walia admitted there could be a need to learn from states like Maharashtra,which have banned the use of this test.

“The question we need to ask is why must we put victims through something that may not be necessary. What is not required to be done need not be done. If Maharashtra has managed to do this,we must see if we can follow them,” she said.