The Hindu : 'Adopt Kerala model to strengthen panels'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 30, 2003

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National

'Adopt Kerala model to strengthen panels'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 29. Failures of several State Governments in constituting the women's commissions notwithstanding, the chairpersons of 16 States here today made an across-the-board demand for adopting the Kerala model to strengthen the panels. The Kerala State Women's Commission has a powerful Act and it is the only one that grants the Cabinet Minister status to its chairperson.

The two-day meeting of the State Women's Commissions, organised by the National Commission for Women (NCW), that concluded here today, recommended that all the States make the panels statutory bodies with more judicial and financial powers.

The participants cited the example of Kerala which has the most powerful commission among the 20 existent ones. Not only is it financially independent, it has been strengthened by the presence of police and legal officers.

Refusing to comment on the working of individual chairpersons, the NCW chairperson, Poornima Advani, said it had identified issues in Wayanad in Kerala and hoped that these would be included in the inquiry conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Kerala State Women's Commission chairperson has come under a lot of flak for not taking seriously the incidents of atrocities on Wayanad tribals. In her report, she had merely mentioned that the tribal women and children were `ill-treated' in the February 17 incident that left two dead. Dr. Advani said that the NCW would make another trip to Kerala in the middle of May to ascertain the progress made by the CBI in the Wayanad case and also take up the problems of mat weavers, fisherwomen and those working in the coir industry who have been affected by modern technology.

"We are concerned about C.K. Janu who was the moving force behind the movement and is now lodged in a jail on charges of murder and those missing after the incident,'' Dr. Advani said.

The participants stressed the need for ensuring 33 per cent reservation for women in the State Assemblies and Parliament.

"The chairpersons believed that identifying joint agendas between the State and National Commissions would strengthen the system," she said.

Among other issues discussed were female foeticide and child marriages.

"We have written to the State Governments to take stringent measures to prevent child marriages that were likely be conducted on May 4 (`Akhha Teej') in most parts of Northern India."

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