New guidelines on sexual violence have been formulated by the health ministry.
New Delhi: In a major step, new guidelines on sexual violence formulated by the health ministry will offer an option to the victim of not reporting the incident to the police at the time of the medical examination or treatment.
The victim can lodge a police complaint based on medical examination report later. The guidelines meant for doctors also decided to replace the word “victim” with “survivor”. It has also been made mandatory to take consent of the guardian only if the “survivor” is under the age of 12 years.
The “finger test”, or “per vaginal test”, would be conducted only in adult women and “only if medically required” and with the “consent of the survivor”. In a bid to protect the dignity of the survivor, the guidelines have “disallowed” the usual practice by doctors and law-enforcing agencies to seek details of the survivor’s past sexual activities and personal family details.
Earlier, the forms to be filled by doctors included questions like whether the person was “wearing attractive clothes”, “has an alcoholic father”, “family discord”. The new format will do away with such queries.
( Source : teena thacker )
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