Awareness among Doctors of a Medical College in southern India of Guidelines and Protocols for Medico-Legal Care for survivors/Victims of sexual Violence

Abstract

Sexual assault is a heinous crime. An early and detailed medical examination is of vital importance for the purpose of investigation. Often, due to lack of documentation, maintenance of records and a lack of awareness of medico-legal law among health care professionals, there is secondary victimization of women, compounding the psycho-social impact of the event. Sexual violence is a major cause of psychological and physical harm for children and women. New guidelines for treating rape victims/survivors was drawn up by the Union health ministry, according to which, every hospital has to set up a separate room for the forensic and medical examination of survivors. The Department of Health Research (DHR) with the Indian council of Medical Research (IcMR) and other experts, introduced a set of national guidelines and protocols for sexual assault cases. The present study aim was to find out the awareness about these guideline and protocol and also to identify the gaps which was introduced to overcome the loopholes. The study was questionnaire based. The target population was medical practitioners in different departments. With 23.47% of respondents being partly aware and 36.73% being unaware, it is obvious that there is a training need. As per the guidelines of the MoHFW, GoI, any medical practitioner can examine and treat sexual assault cases. Hence, the suggested training module can be implemented during under graduation training or during internship.