Rights groups reject women's panel report

Women’s organisations on Thursday described as “biased and influenced” an interim report submitted by the State Women’s Rights Commission on the attack on youth at a homestay in Mangalore.

Participating in a protest here, Dona Fernandes from Vimochana said the chairperson of the Commission, C Manjula, seemed to be supporting the attackers in her report, instead of reinforcing confidence in women. 

“Girls were manhandled and robbed of their money and gold jewellery by the attackers at the homestay. But the Commission chairperson does not mention anything about these incidents in the report.

 Instead, she does moral policing and tells women how to dress and what to do,” Fernandes said. Asha Ramesh, a women’s rights activist, said Manjula’s report was totally anti-women

 “The women’s rights commission’s chairperson is living in the “Manu Smriti” times when people were told how to live. Her report is totally influenced and sounds like one written by a Hinduva activist.

 The chairperson has not even spoken to any of the victimised girls, but she has branded the youth’s get-together a rave party and that girls had crossed their limits. Her statement violates the Constitutional rights of a woman,” she said. The organisations submitted a memorandum to the Women’s Commission demanding the withdrawal of the interim report.

Alternative Law Forum, Garment Mahila Karmikara Munnode, Garment and Textile Workers’ Unio and others   participated in the protest.