Hon House Chairperson and hon member, ordinarily we normally encourage that the same person who examine the patient or the victim would be the same one who will hand the victim would be the same one who will hand the victim right up to the court processes. This is just to make sure that we do not have the misalignment and missing the information in between. So, that normally is the approach that we take.
The issue of the multidisciplinary nature of the challenges that we have to deal with in the case of rape is something that we cannot do much about. For an example, for physical examination and collection of forensic material for investigation, you might be having a nurse and a medical officer to deal with that, but for psychological counselling you will obviously need a psychologist who would be someone else, not the same people that would have done the first examination.
When it comes to the taking down of the statements that relates to the criminality of the activity that has taken place leading to the rape, then you need the police to deal with that. Then you already have a team of three different people who are focussing on three different aspects of the same individual. So, there is a point at which we may not be able to separate these three different participants in this case.
In terms of training, we answered the question earlier by indicating that we always give upgrading programmes of training to the nurses and doctors who are dealing with this matter. We always try and make sure that the people who deal with investigations or the examinations are people who have experience. That is why we talk about district surgeons. In most of the areas we refer the patients there because these are the people who are familiar with the procedures. There would be investigations that need to be taken up, as well as presentation of the matter to court so that we can ensure that there is conviction because of their own experience in the matter.
You can actually get an inexperienced officer who may not be able to present the matter or might miss certain factual findings and
therefore does become an issue that compromises the case. So, we always keep that in mind as we deal with these matters. Thank you.
Question 245: