The Hindu : NCW moots dept. for women

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

NCW moots dept. for women

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 20. The chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Poornima Advani, has suggested that a separate Department for Women and Children be formed by the State to deal with the problems of women more effectively.

She was speaking at a workshop on economic empowerment of women, organised jointly by the NCW and the State Women's Commission here on Tuesday.

At present, the welfare of women and children was being attended to by the Department of Social Welfare. But women's empowerment was a separate matter altogether and should not be treated as a welfare issue, Dr. Advani said.

An open house with NGOs was the highlight of the workshop on the second day. Participating in the discussion, many women activists pointed out that violence against women was on the rise in the State and that under such circumstances, there was an immediate need for temporary shelter homes for women.

A delegate from Pathanamthitta pointed out that dowry system was strengthening in the State. The RDOs are the State's dowry prohibition officers but not many complaints reached them.

She said that in some factions of the Church, the system existed wherein the Church gets 10 per cent of the dowry. In such a situation, the Church too was indirectly supporting the dowry system, it was pointed out.

Aleyamma Vijayan of `Sakhi' suggested that one-stop crisis control centres be set up at the district-level and in medical college hospitals for treating victims of violence, including domestic violence. A team of doctors, lawyers and psychologists should also be there at these centres to give social support services and counselling.

She also appealed to the commission to take immediate steps to improve the conditions of maternity wards in Government hospitals and that monitoring committees be set up with NGO participation to keep check of the situation.

Increasing incidence of female foeticide in the State and the need for status studies on the increasing population of the aged women were the other issues that were raised.

The problem of human rights violations perpetrated on sex workers by the police was also brought to the attention of the NCW. The need for day and night shelters for sex workers was also pointed out.

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