Awaaz appeals to district administration, suggests preventive measures for women safety

n December 6: The rising crime against women in the country is an alarming issue. Safety of women is stake not only in big cities but also everywhere in rural and urban India. Barak Valley in general and Silchar in particular are also witnesses of rising crime against women. Recently, a female student of Assam University was molested at broad daylight in Silchar. Keeping all these facts in mind, an organisation named Awaaz gave a memorandum to Cachar District Administration on Friday.

Awaaz, an organisation of of youngsters, led by Shubhashome Dewanjee went to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar and submitted the memorandum to Additional Deputy Commissioner in the absence of the Deputy Commissioner. In the memorandum the youngsters laid a series of demands to the Administration to ensure safety of the women.

Awaaz in its memorandum suggested various preventive measures for ensuring safety of women:

• Mandatory sex education and moral value classes at school level.
• ‘Women safety unit’ to be formed under the direct supervision of the Superintendent of Police, charged with the duty of late night patrolling and to pick and drop girls at late night returning from their place of job to their residence, so that their safety is ensured.

• Fresh CCTV cameras be installed at the comparatively dark and silent zones of the town to counter and keep a check on the harassment and rape attempts.
• Self defense classes be imparted to the students in colleges and schools.
• High power street lights be installed at the dark places of Silchar.

• Gender sensitisation committees recommended by the UGC must be made functional inside all institutes of Barak Valley.
• The problem of eve teasing that the girls of our society are facing is very shameful for us. The administration should take strict action against it.

Later on, addressing the media, Shubhashome Dewanjee of Awaaz said, “We have submitted this memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner so that the issue of women’s safety can be taken in hand in a concrete way. The rising crime against women is definitely an issue of major concern. We have high hopes from the district administration. That is why, we have submitted this memorandum wherein we have put forward some suggestion, which if implemented will definitely prove to be of great use in the long run.”