To take charge in one week after state government accepted her condition
Sunitha Krishnan
Thiruvananthapuram: Social activist Dr Sunitha Krishnan, who had walked out as advisor of the state’s Nirbhaya scheme in early August questioning the government’s political will, will return to head the scheme. “All issues have been sorted out and Dr Krishnan will take charge in a week,” Social Justice Minister Dr M.K. Muneer said. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy too is eager to have her back.
The state government has also accepted the condition put forward by Dr Krishnan for her return. She wanted the Nibhaya scheme run by the home department to be merged with the Nirbhaya policy of the social justice department. The social justice’s Nirbhaya policy was the first to begin in 2012. The home department’s policy is a central scheme put in place in the wake of the Delhi rape.
“It has now been decided in consultation with the home department that the rehabilitation of victims will be exclusively done by the social justice department. The crime mapping, which we had already taken up in 70 panchayats, will also be done by social justice,” the minister said. Dr Krishnan was earlier frustrated by the lack of coordination between the home and social justice departments.
Dr Muneer said that Dr Krishnan’s return had already been informed to the union minister for women and child development, Ms Maneka Gandhi. “I have told Maneka that Dr Krishnan herself will personally meet her and submit the state’s plan for the rehabilitation of sexual abuse victims,” Dr Muneer said.
The decision to woo back Dr Krishnan was taken after it was found that the Nirbhaya scheme was in danger of winding up in her absence. “Her outburst and her consequent departure came at a time when she had managed to coerce the government into opening five Nirbhaya centres across the state,” a top social justice source said. “Considering the manner in which she built up Prajwala, it can be said that she is the only person in the country equipped to run a project like Nirbhaya,” the source added.
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