One Stop Centres, providing integrated support to women affected by violence, are also known by which other name?

Sakhi Centres. One Stop Centres are also known as Sakhi Centres. Read more: The 181 Women Helpline and One Stop Centres: India's Post-2012 Support Network.

Women’s Safety Helplines and Support Systems in India

A woman in distress in India has more than one way to reach help. Two separate helplines, and a network of physical support centres, all try to be that first point of contact.

MCQ Questions

Indian Society

181, 14490, and One Stop Centres: Three Different Doors

Emergency Line

181 — Women Helpline

Run byGovernment, 24-hour national line

DoesRefers to police, medical, or legal help

Linked toERSS-112 and Child Helpline 1098

Casework Line

14490 — NCW Helpline

Run byNational Commission for Women, a statutory body

DoesOpens a case number, tracks it to resolution

Serious casesGo to NCW’s own Inquiry Committee

Physical Centre

One Stop Centres

Funded byNirbhaya Fund, via Mission Shakti today

DoesMedical, police, legal aid and shelter, one roof

Scale991 of 1,033 approved centres operational

The exam trap

181 and 14490 look like duplicate helplines but aren’t. One refers you onward; the other opens and tracks a formal case. Both trace back to the same 2012 case, but through different funding and institutional routes.

📑 Contents

1Two Helplines and a Centre Network, All Tracing to 2012
2How NCW’s Casework Runs, and How OSCs Are Funded and Linked
3Test Yourself
4Why 181 and 14490 Are Not Duplicates, and Where Critics Push Back
5Current Affairs: The August 2026 Rajya Sabha Reply on OSCs
6The Real Trap: Who Runs What, and Who Pays

✊ Must Know

1. Two Helplines and a Centre Network, All Tracing to 2012

181 Helpline The Women Helpline Scheme runs a 24-hour national helpline on the short number 181. It offers emergency support and referral to police, medical, or legal authorities.
NCW Helpline The National Commission for Women (NCW), India’s apex statutory body for women’s rights, runs its own 24×7 helpline, 14490. It is linked to NCW’s existing number, 7827170170, and is open to any woman or girl above 18.
One Stop Centres One Stop Centres, also called Sakhi Centres, offer medical aid, police assistance, legal aid, counselling, and shelter, all under one roof. The scheme aims for at least one OSC in every district.
Why Both 181 and OSCs trace back to the Nirbhaya Fund, set up after the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. OSCs now run under Mission Shakti’s Sambal sub-scheme, with 100% Central funding for staffing and infrastructure.

📘 Good to Know

2. How NCW’s Casework Runs, and How OSCs Are Funded and Linked

Mechanism NCW screens every 14490 complaint for jurisdiction first. In-mandate complaints get a unique case number. Each one then follows one of three tracks: monitoring a police investigation, checking compliance with statutory provisions, or offering mediation and counselling. Serious cases go to an NCW Inquiry Committee.
Sensitisation Training NCW also studies its complaint data in aggregate, to spot institutional gaps. It uses these patterns to inform sensitisation training for police, judiciary, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and defence lawyers.
Data 661 OSCs are now integrated with the 181 Women Helpline. The 181 line itself links to the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112) and the Child Helpline (1098).
Mechanism OSC funding flows through the Single Nodal Agency (SNA) mechanism, under the Public Financial Management System (PFMS). Staff get standardised training from partners including NIMHANS, UNFPA, and NALSA.

Test Yourself

📝 Test Yourself

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💎 Great to Know

3. Why 181 and 14490 Are Not Duplicates, and Where Critics Push Back

Instead 181 and 14490 are not duplicates of each other. 181 is a government emergency-referral line. 14490 is a rights body’s own casework line, with a case number and its own Inquiry Committee for serious matters.
Nirbhaya Fund The Nirbhaya Fund also supports other women’s safety measures, including CCTV networks and fast-track courts.
Instead Critics have pointed to uneven awareness of the 181 helpline across different states and regions.
Why The “one roof” model of One Stop Centres was designed to reduce the trauma of retelling a case repeatedly. Scheme oversight runs on two tracks. The Programme Approval Board reviews OSC progress with states annually. The Ministry’s own Mission Shakti Dashboard adds real-time tracking at district, state, and national level.

🗞️ Current Affairs

4. Current Affairs: The August 2026 Rajya Sabha Reply on OSCs

Data On 5 August 2026, the Ministry of Women and Child Development gave the Rajya Sabha an updated OSC count. Since inception on 1 April 2015, and through 30 June 2026, 1,033 OSCs have been administratively approved. Of these, 991 are now operational nationally (Source: PIB, 5 August 2026).
Data These 991 operational OSCs have assisted over 15.20 lakh women in total, per the same reply.
Data The reply also gave Uttar Pradesh-specific figures: 124 operational OSCs, including 7 added in 2024-25 and 36 in 2025-26. Since inception, UP’s OSCs have assisted over 3.42 lakh women, including 37,360-plus in 2024-25 and 52,278-plus in 2025-26.
Mission Shakti Status Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur gave this reply. It confirms OSCs now operate as a Mission Shakti component, not as the standalone Nirbhaya Fund scheme they were originally structured as after 2012.

🎯 Exam Point of View

5. The Real Trap: Who Runs What, and Who Pays

The real trapMany assume 181 and 14490 are the same helpline duplicated. 181 is a government referral line; 14490 is NCW’s own statutory casework line, with a case number.
A second real trapOne Stop Centres are commonly linked to Mission Shakti today, but their funding traces to the Nirbhaya Fund, set up after the 2012 Delhi case.
Why it mattersExams on multi-agency schemes often test which body runs which piece, not just that a scheme exists.