Panel to submit report on status of women and children

V S Ugrappa, chairperson of the Legislature Committee on Women and Child Safety, said his committee would report on the status of women and children and the atrocities committed against them.

The report, to be given by June end, would cover all 30 districts of the state, he said at a district-level meeting on Thursday.

Ugrappa said he had toured 22 districts and reviewed complaints of atrocities committed against women and children. “In nearly 95% of the cases, there have been no convictions. The committee, set up around 18 months ago, will try to find the reasons for this,” he promised, and added, “The low rate of conviction is due to the failure of police and prosecution. Witnesses who turn hostile are major offenders. The Police Department is accountable for such atrocities.”

Ugrappa said, “A society can be called civilised only when it has no case of atrocities on women and children. The nation’s capital New Delhi ranks high in the list of places with cases of violence on women. As per the data on cases of violence against women, the main cause of such acts is psychological distress and men’s desire to prove they are potent.”

He added that he has recommended that the powers given to the Legal Services Authority should be transferred to the committee which will be headed by the deputy commissioner, superintendent of police, zilla panchayat CEO and others for early disposal of the cases.

Lambasting DHO Dr Rohini for not providing reasons for decreasing gender ratio, Ugrappa said that officials concerned had failed to find the reasons.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Vishal R said that there are 1,094 females for every 1,000 males, but the count had reduced from 1,130 in the past two to three decades. “The main reasons are migration and single-child norm adopted by the parents. Also, 99% of the total deliveries are institutional. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act has been strictly imposed in the district,” the officer explained.

The DHO said that the district had 104 radiology centres. Expressing his displeasure over committees not being set up in the departments as per the Vishaka guidelines after the Supreme Court reprimanded the government, Ugrappa said the officials were ignorant about the guidelines. He said the funds released to empower SC/STs, dalits, women and children had not been utilised properly by the departments concerned.

The DC informed that Rs 20,000 each has been given to 12 transgender and 12 sex workers. SP Annamalai said women staff crunch has been bothering the Police Department in the district. “There is mere 10.1% as against the 33% recommended by the government. A district-level committee has been set up under Vishaka guidelines and a PSI-ranking female officer is heading the committee,” he added.