LAHORE, Nov 28: A change in the attitude of men towards women is necessary for checking domestic violence.

Punjab Women Taskforce Chairperson Ghazala Saad said this while speaking as the chief guest at a provincial forum on findings of the Punjab University Institute of Social and Cultural Studies on the implementation status of women crisis centres in Punjab arranged by ActionAid here on Friday.

She said domestic violence could not be controlled by mere legislation because it had its roots in the pattern of thinking of men towards women.

Conditions required to be changed to ensure that the women did not need to be rescued from men. The women could play their role in bringing the desired change in the thinking of men in their capacities as mothers, sisters, daughters and wives, she said.

Federal Ministry for Women Development Assistant Director Naila Dar said 23 crisis centres for women were functioning in the country out of 25. She said the government planned to establish 30 new crisis centers next year. Working of existing crisis centres was being hampered owing to delay in release of funds, she said.

Punjab Ministry of Women Development Deputy Director Shahid Sarfraz Khan said working of crisis centres was being hindered because of unclear terms of reference and lack of coordination between federal and provincial governments.

Punjab Home Department Deputy Secretary Waqar Husain said the provincial government had set up a crisis management cell and a control room for referring the cases of violence against women to district police officers and district coordination officers.

Presenting the findings of situation analysis, Raana Malik of the Punjab University Gender Studies Department said the annual budget of every woman crisis center was around Rs2 million and centers were totally dependent on the funds available from the ministry of women development.

She said that centers had managers, law officers and social officers on the staff, but were located at far off places and functioned only between 8am and 3pm.

The academic qualifications of most of the staff are not in accordance with their job requirements. They do not have understanding of counseling techniques and strategies or receive any extensive training to help the women in distress. The centres have poor networking and linkages with other departments.

She said that centres were providing only counseling, reconciliation and medical aid to the women in distress. Providing of a temporary shelter to women was, however, not a regular feature of the centres.

She said Faisalabad, Multan and Mianwali centres had not provided shelter to any woman so far. She said only the

Lahore centre had provided shelter to seven women in three years.

The women visiting the centres were mostly poor and illiterate and in the age bracket of 25 to 40 years. Only the medical aid was offered to women coming to the centres.

She said the percentage of women needing medical treatment was found very high at Faisalabad. The nature of cases handled by the centers included the recovery of minors, dissolution of marriage, custody of children and recovery of dowry articles, she said.