Toddler rape: DCW sends notice to Hauz Khas police

The DCW today sent a notice to the Hauz Khas police asking them why the Crisis Intervention Centre counsellor was not informed about the alleged rape of a toddler at the time of registration of the FIR and during her medico legal certificate examination.
The one-and-a-half-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old man, who was babysitting her on her parent's request, in the Shahpur Jat area in south Delhi yesterday.
In the notice, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal referred to the order of the Delhi High Court as per which the duty officer should immediately, upon receipt of the complaint or information about rape, intimate the same to the rape-crisis cell.

"Please inform the Commission as to why the Crisis Intervention Centre counsellor of the DCW was not informed about the grievous incident at the time of registration of the FIR and conduction of the MLC examination," Maliwal said in a letter.
She sought the information within seven days failing which appropriate action under law will be initiated by the Commission, the notice mentioned.
Maliwal, who visited the victim at the Safdarjung Hospital yesterday, has also written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, demanding that proper Standard Operating Procedures be put in place at the health facility to ensure support to the survivors of sexual assault and their families and immediate withdrawal of bouncers from the hospital premises.

In her letter to Nadda, she said that she met the father of the toddler yesterday who informed her that he has not been allowed to visit his girl or wife (who was with the child inside the hospital).

The father said he was unable to know the status of the medical condition of his child as his wife was not carrying a mobile phone.
"Since he was disallowed entry into the hospital, he was unable to carry food for his wife and child who were inside the hospital. He has said in a written complaint to the police that he was denied entry into the hospital by the bouncers at the gate who even pushed him and manhandled his accompaniment," Maliwal said.

She said she felicitated the father's entry only to know that the mother had not eaten anything since the incident.
"While I appreciate security concerns, it is strongly felt that the appointment of professional bouncers that too in such a large number in the hospital, is highly counter- productive," she said.
"I spent the entire night in the hospital and found these bouncers to be in general misbehaving with the public. People who approach hospitals are already in severe distress. The least that we can do is to treat them in a humane manner which was completely missing in the Safdarjung Hospital," Maliwal said.

Maliwal was yesterday detained along with other members and later released, while she was protesting in front of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence demanding that he visits the rape victim to understand the pain she went through.