Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has supported the ban on telecast of ‘India’s Daughter’, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary on the December 16, 2012, Delhi gang rape.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kittur Rani Chenamma Award function on International Women’s Day at the Sri Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday, the chief minister said: “There should be freedom of expression, but it should not cause pain to the victim. The documentary tarnishes the image of the victim and her family members. Hence, in my opinion, the documentary should not have been telecast for public.”
Siddaramaiah also expressed outrage at the comments made by Mukesh Singh—one of the four adult men convicted of raping the girl—and the defence lawyers as shown in the documentary.
The chief minister acknowledged that sexual crimes against women and cases of gender discrimination were on the rise.
He regretted that female literacy in Karnataka was way lower (68 per cent) than male literacy (82 per cent). “There is a strong need to debate this issue threadbare and get to the root cause. Another issue is that there are fewer women in the State than men. Our government is committed to women empowerment and eradicating the Devadasi system fully,” he said.
Kittur Rani Chennamma awardees:
Institutions
Chunchadri Mahila Vedike
(Shivamogga)
Madhushri Mahila Samaja (Vedike) (Hassan)
Mahila Vritthi Shikshana and
Abhivruddhi Sangha (Koppal)
Karnataka Rajya Devadasi Mahileyara Vimochana (Ballari)
Divyadarshana Rural
Development Self-employment
Training Institute (Bagalkot)
Sahayoga Svayam Seva Samsthe (Bidar)
Individuals
Shantha Kotresh (Bengaluru)
Amira Banu (Davangere)
H V Kamalamma
(Chikkaballapur)
Muttu Madivalthi (Dakshina Kannada)
Jyothi Vinayaka Bhat (Sirsi)
Lalitha Shastri (Bengaluru)
Anupama B S (Mandya)
Yuvan Lomax (Belagavi)
Art
Lakshmamma (Kolar)
Geetha Kulkarni (Vijayapura)
Theresamma D’Souza (Hubballi)
Bharathi Saraganachari (Badami)
Hanifa Sheikh (Kalaburagi)
Education
Shanthi Desai (Kalaburagi)
Literature
M N Latha Mohan (Mysuru)
Dr Veena Bharathi (Bengaluru)
Sports
Veena A (Chikkamagaluru)
Machamma M P (Kodagu)
On the occasion, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Umashree, requested the chief minister to allocate more funds for women-centric programmes. She said a memorandum regarding the same had been submitted to the chief minister.
At the event, Kittur Rani Chennamma Awards were presented to six institutions and 18 women from different parts of the State for their contribution in various fields. In addition, special awards were conferred on women who have overcome all the odds and emerged successful in their lives. Acid attack victim Hasina Hussain and Bhavana, a transgender, were among the special awardees.
Home Minister K J George, Infrastructure Development and Haj Minister R Roshan Baig, Law Minister T B Jayachandra, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy among others were present on the occasion.
Published 08 March 2015, 18:32 IST