Bangalore: Although the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 came into effect in October last year and the rules for its implementation framed recently, women in distress here have not been able to make use of the provisions of the Act for their benefit.

The State Government is yet to enforce the Act effectively and has not appointed protection officers, who are supposed to liaison between the aggrieved women and the court.

This is now set to change. According to senior officials in the Women and Child Development Department, the State Government will shortly issue a government notification for the appointment of protection officers in all taluks. "We are in the process of identifying officials for this purpose and a notification will be issued in the next eight to 10 days. The Minister for Women and Child Development has called for a meeting next week to discuss this issue," Ranjini Sreekumar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Department of Women and Child Development, told The Hindu .

The State Government has earmarked Rs. 3 crore for effective implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. But the department is not making new recruitments for the post of Protection Officer under the Act for want of funds. Women officials working in the department will be identified for this post and they will be exclusively assigned this task.

According to Ms. Sreekumar, women among the probation officers — Grade 2 — and the Assistant Child Development Officers will be identified and one woman protection officer will be assigned for each taluk. There are 260 officials of this rank available and some of them can be engaged only to work as protection officers.

"Although the rules have been now framed for the Central Act, the Centre has not allotted any funds to the State for implementation of the provisions of the Act, including appointment of staff. According to some estimates at least Rs.70 crores was necessary for each State for effective implementation of the legislation," she said.

The Act is not clear on remuneration to service providers such as non-governmental organisations helping the aggrieved women or short stay homes where the woman might have to go, senior officials said.

But activists working for the welfare of woman are not convinced. "Unless the Government appoints new staff to take individual charge as protection officers there cannot be effective implementation of the Act. The existing staff are overburdened with other duties and may not be able to do justice to this role," said Donna Fernandes of Vimochana.

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