Committee for women safety plan scrapped

Kochi: While atrocities against women, including attacks in public transport, are on the rise, the proposal to constitute a district-level standing committee to coordinate safety programmes for women has been dropped. Representatives of women’s groups allege that there is a lack of enthusiasm among the authorities to constitute such a committee.

During a meeting with representatives of several women’s groups, district collector P.I. Sheikh Pareeth had agreed to constitute the committee, which would have representatives of various government departments.

Sr. Mariamma J. Kalathil, director of Centre for Gender, Development and Ecology (Samanwayam), the NGO that submitted the concept of the standing committee, said that though the district collector took a very positive approach, there was no response from other department officials concerned.

“Women’s groups had approached heads of other departments and police authorities earlier, but they said they were unable to coordinate efforts to ensure safety of women.

That is why we approached the district collector who can more effectively coordinate the various departments,” said Sr. Mariamma.

The district collector however told Deccan Chronicle that the proposal has not been abandoned and a follow-up meeting will be convened after January 20. “The proposal is under consideration. It was due to the hectic schedule that I couldn’t meet the women’s group representatives,” he said.

The proposal submitted to the district administration made the standing committee responsible for conceiving and implementing safety measures in the district.

The RTO, city police commissioner, corporation mayor and representatives of other departments were to be members of the committee.

The government is spending money on various safety measures and welfare programmes for women, but most of them fail to reach women in distress.

“Projects implemented for the safety and empowerment of women in the district, have failed to address women’s issues.

Though several projects like Nirbhaya, Snehitha and Bhoomika were implemented to support women in distress, lack of effective coordination and follow-up made them unsuccessful.

Even stakeholders like police and government departments are unaware  about such facilities and women are unable to utilise them,” said Jyothi Narayanan of Sthreevedi.