Every second child in India experiences some kind of sexual abuse, and every fifth child experiences severe forms of it. The total number of POCSO cases in Telangana state increased by more than 35 % during the period 2019 to 2021 (from 1,998 in 2019 to 2,698 in 2021), as compared to a 14 % increase (from 47,335 in 2019 to 53,874 in 2021) at the national level. The number of child sexual abuse cases pending in special courts in Telangana as of January 2023 is 10,605. Most of the victims are girls, and many of them became pregnant, exacerbating their physical and mental health concerns when disowned or abandoned by their families. The physical and emotional trauma experienced by these minor victims of rape and aggravated assault, especially in cases where they become pregnant is enormous. The establishment of a dedicated rehabilitation center aims to address the complex needs of these young victims, ensuring their safety, well-being, and dignity.
 

Tharuni is the Technical partner to Telangana State Police in the establishment and running of the most successful and innovative initiative – “Bharosa centres” for child sexual abuse victims. There are 29 such centres running in 29 districts till date and more than 24,000 cases have been supported through these centres so far. Tharuni has a MOU with Telangana State Police for supporting the Bharosa Centres.  The Supreme Court of India has also appreciated the Bharosa concept and advised all the States to set up similar centres. Now the initiative is being scaled up in other states of India.

Bharosa Centres

BHAROSA was established in early 2016, in Telangana’s capital city, Hyderabad, as a Society for the protection of women and children. The Department of Women and Child Development, Telangana provides logistic support, and funding. The State Police Department oversees the everyday operations of BHAROSA, provides the infrastructure, and lends organizational strength.

The singular purpose of BHAROSA is to provide support to women and children who are subjected to sexual abuse. Such victims that approach BHAROSA have a seamless access to all the specialized support services that work together to ameliorate the trauma, and assist in the appropriate re-integration into their family and society.

Assistance is provided in an cohesive manner employing a combination of police, medical, psychological counselling, legal, and prosecution services. This multi-pronged assistance works towards the required relief and rehabilitation of the victim.

Thus, the BHAROSA support centre, works in a holistic approach where a victim in distress will get all the help and support at one place, away from police stations and hospitals. The objective of the organization is to normalise the shattered lives of the victims to a great extent, and vastly reduce re-victimization of women and children affected by violence and sexual abuse.

Bharosa was established as a registered society under the AP Societies Registrations Act 2001. The society has obtained tax exemption under Section 80-G and 12-A of Income Tax Act. Tharuni is the Member in the Executive Body of Bharosa.

After the overwhelming success of Bharosa in Hyderabad, identical centres are now active in most districts of Telangana.

HOW IT WORKS:

Bharosa’s purpose is to support victims of rape as well as the cases registered under the POCSO Act.
All cases of rape, and cases under POCSO Act are sent to Bharosa Centre for carrying out the mandatory provisions of Medical examination, recording of 161 CrPc, and 164 CrPc statements.

A woman police officer at Bharosa helps the victim who requires police assistance in filing an FIR and follow-up with the police station concerned. She also records the victim’s statement under 161 Cr. P.C for all the rape and POCSO Act cases. She also supervises the daily activities in the center and monitors the work of staff of Bharosa Centre. 164 CrPc statements are recorded via video conferencing or in the child friendly court by a judicial Magistrate.

Medical Officers are deputed to conduct, and collect medical evidence in the Medical facility at Bharosa.
The on-site Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) provides immediate medical support to victims in emergencies as well as assistance to victims in medical examination, and medical evidence collection.

Each case is assigned to a well-trained counsellor who takes detailed notes about the case and after assessing the needs of the victim, the counsellor facilitates further assistance based on the ‘need analysis.’ She also counsels the victim to alleviate the stress, and trauma preparatory to recording the statement and subsequent medical examination.

A Legal counsellor is available to provide legal advice, and support to initiate the legal process and take it to its logical conclusion by leading it to conviction.

Wherever the victims are in need of specialized services, they are referred to an expert in that specific field drawn from Bharosa’s panel of consultants. Bharosa is working towards increasing its network to help such victims elsewhere.

Each case is first registered in the appropriate manner using a specially developed dynamic software.
Bharosa is also active on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress blog, for easy access by victims who can electronically send messages or report abuse. The website of Bharosa has all the contact details and detailed information.

A child friendly court has been setup next to the Bharosa Centre as per the guidelines of the POCSO Act and the Supreme Court in most of the districts.

CHILD FRIENDLY COURT

Following the guidelines under the POCSO ACT, the judiciary has set up a Special Child Friendly Court with all the required permissions in the premises of Hyderabad Bharosa-Support Center. This Child Friendly Court was inaugurated on the 7th of April 2018, by Justice Madan B. Lokur, Hon’ble Justice of Supreme Court of India. For the first time in India, such a special court for children has been set up as a separate entity with Tharuni’s Technical Support. All child friendly provisions were taken into consideration while designing this Court. Some of the special features of the court include:

● there are separate entrances for the victim, and the accused. This ensures the victim does not come face to face with the assaulter anytime during the trial.

● there is a hall for the victims and their family to wait in until being called, and a play area for the former.
● a room with video linkage facility is available for the children who are not comfortable in the Courtroom.

● a viewing room for the accused with a one-way mirror through which the accused can witness the proceedings in the courtroom. The room has a speaker/audio system for the accused to speak and listen to the proceedings in the court room.

● a video screen is placed in the Court room on which the child can see the image of the accused during the identification process.

Conforming to child friendly practices, the questions asked by the magistrate.
All trials are done ‘in-camera.’ A legal support person from Bharosa ensures that the child is familiar with the court proceedings before the trial begins.
The child is not called repeatedly to testify in Court and the child’s identity is not disclosed.

Bharosa Project Management Unit:

The other features at Bharosa include a Specialized Monitoring Cell, a Special task Force, and a Project management Unit.

The Specialized Monitoring Cell is centrally coordinated by the Women Safety Wing. Its team comprises of two Police Inspectors to exclusively monitor the POCSO Act, and rape cases with the sole objective of securing convictions. Among the reported crimes under the POCSO Act/Rape category, certain cases qualify as Special Category based on criteria such as the age of the victim being under ten years of age, the crime being horrendous in nature, etc. Selection of such cases is based on the DSR (Daily situation report.)

A Special Task Force is formed whenever necessary commanded by a Dy. Superintendent of Police to monitor and act appropriately in all the POCSO Act/rape cases as per the guidelines drawn by the Supreme Court of India. Its responsibilities include to see that to compete an investigation in a time frame of two months, and the relevant trial in a court of law be completed within a year.

A Bharosa Project Management Unit (BPMU) has been established at the Women Safety Wing premises with experts drawn from fields, such as forensic medicine, forensic investigation, obtaining legally valid, and scientific evidence to corroborate facts and offer support in the investigation by the officers concerned, as well as monitor the cases.
Training and capacity building of Bharosa staff , Medical officers, Public Prosecutors, Judiciary and other stakeholders is done by the Bharosa Project Management Unit & Tharuni Team.
Additional Superintendent of Police and Technical Partner, Tharuni regularly visit all the Bharosa centres to see that they function uniformly extending quality services.

Bharosa Centres in the districts:
After the success of the Bharosa Centre in Hyderabad, the Government of Telangana has initiated setting up Bharosa centres in all the other districts, 28 Bharosa centres are functioning in 28 districts since June 2022 in addition to the one in Hyderabad.