BENGALURU: In a report that underlines the growing risk faced by women in the state, the Karnataka State Women Commission (KSWC) released some startling statistics that showed the harassment against women was on an upward spiral, with some 230 cases of harassment against women being registered every month across the state. According to the data provided, some 3107 cases have been booked in all, in the last year alone, with the latest data available from the KSWC stating that of the 2,473 women harassment cases booked across the state from November 2016 to August 2017, barely 543 cases have been solved, leaving 930 cases still pending.
Ms. Nagalakshmi Bai, the Chairperson of the Karnataka State Women Commission said that this year in Haveri about 3,000 women had their uteruses removed forcibly and illegally by a doctor, named Dr Shanth who worked in a government hospitals.
He has been suspended. Gulbarga is second on the list with around 2,200 women having their uteruses removed illegally in private hospitals.
Four hospitals that conducted such operations have been shut down.
In other crimes against women, the IT capital tops the list with workplace harassments suits and marital violence in Karnataka.
Other crimes which tops the list in different cities are: Belagavi, where a number of female children were married off to older men; Mysuru, where several women who married for love, facing abuse from cheating spouses; Mangaluru, where a number of women were forced into prostitution; Koppal, where the numbers of child marriages are high; and Tumakuru, where the number of women and girls being kidnapped is rising.
“Bengaluru does come on top of the list when it comes to harassment of women but most cases are related to domestic abuse over petty fights between the husband and wife. Even today, in many rural areas, women do not come forward to register cases of domestic violence. I have visited many districts and the problems are not the same, it is different in each and every place,” said Ms. Nagalakshmi Bai.
“We have done many awareness programs for women to educate them and this year we have released a calendar with the intention of educating women on various types of harassment,” she said.
