Creating awareness can help fight atrocities against women and children, officials told
Police personnel and staff in the Department of Women and Child Development must be first made aware of PoCSO Act, says KSCW chief
Expressing concern over increasing atrocities on women and children, Chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women (KSCW) Nagalakshmi Chowdhary has said that creating awareness among people, especially the women and children, is an effective way to fighting crimes against women and children.
“Cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (PoCSO) Act are being reported too often. Sexual offences against both minor girls and boys fall under the Act and the accused offender is punishable irrespective of the gender of the victim. Police personnel and the staff in the Department of Women and Child Development must, in the first place, be made aware of the Act,” Ms. Chowdhary said.
She was speaking at a meeting of senior officials of various government departments at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Kalaburagi on Wednesday.
The meeting was convened to review issues relating to reservations for women in government departments, the formation of an Internal Complaints Committee in government and private institutions, handling offences against women and women’s safety at workplaces.
“There is no better solution than spreading awareness among the people for minimising atrocities against women and children. You need to take up an awareness campaign once in six months, at least, in colleges, schools, hostels and other relevant places to spread awareness on atrocities against women and children and the relevant legal provisions such as PoCSO Act to tackle them,” Ms. Chowdhary said.
Superintendent of Police Akshay M. Hakay told the meeting that 40 women and 22 minor girls have gone missing in the district in the last six months. And, 21 of them have been traced till date, he added.
“In the same period, nine rape cases have been reported and charge-sheet filed in seven such cases. We have taken up frequent drives to create awareness among people in rural areas, especially in Tandas [Lambani hamlets] about the ill-effects of child marriage. We have 26 ERSS [Emergency Response Support System] vehicles, 16 in rural areas and 10 in urban areas, to attend to people’s grievances. The system is receiving 30 to 40 calls every day and we are rapidly responding to those in need of help,” Mr. Hakay said.
Expressing serious concern over the increasing number of women being kidnapped, Ms. Chowdhary called upon the Police Department to look into the issue seriously and take all possible preventive measures to curb such atrocities against women.
“The sad thing is that the aggrieved women won’t get positive responses from the law enforcers, especially the Police Department. When they go to a police station, they are not treated well. We need to bring home women-friendly policing,” she said.
When she asked Mr. Hakay whether his department has taken any steps to inculcate gender sensitivity among its personnel, the latter responded saying that women’s desks have been established in all police stations to ensure proper process of filing cases of offences against women.
He added that the process of making the personnel more gender-sensitive is always on in his department.
“I visited the Primary Health Centre at Gobbur in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district and found that not a single health camp has been conducted there. In some places, you organised health camps just before I visited the district. Why didn’t you organise them regularly? The president of the gram panchayat knows nothing about such camps,” she said, pointing at officials in the Health Department.
Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum told the meeting that the district administration has launched Mission Suraksha to spread awareness about protection of girls. When she said that 450 master trainers, who have been recruited under the programme, visited 2,198 schools, colleges and hostels to inculcate awareness, Ms. Chowdhary appreciated the district administration’s initiatives in the direction of creating an aware citizenry.
When District Health and Family Welfare Officer Suresh Mekin told the meeting that the women-men ratio in the district is 1,000:943, Ms. Chowdhary asked what steps have been taken to bring down the gap.
In his response, Deputy Director of Women and Child Development Naveen U. said that his department is conducting frequent awareness programmes across the district.
Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Bhanwar Singh Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanika Sikriwal, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rayappa Hunasagi, Additional Superintendent of Police Srinidhi, Assistant Commissioner of Police Bindumani R.N. and other senior officers were present.
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