Meeting held on moral policing, crimes against women

Mangalore, Dec 27: Few like-minded organizations came together to discuss and outline a plan of action in a meeting against the backdrop of the alleged kidnap and blackmail of two medical students last week on the outskirts of the city, to prevent further such incidents in the future.

In a gathering of few activists from NGOs, organisations and concerned citizens, questions were raised on how to check the increasing number of moral policing instances and crimes against women in the district.

Advocate and chairperson of Child Welfare Committee Asha Nayak said that in cases of crimes against women, people in the civil society had to change their mindset towards the victims. “Usually after the initial concern shown towards the victims, there is silence after a case has been filed. The concern and moral support towards the victim must remain till the end,” she said.

Speaking on the mindset of the educational institutions in cases where the victims are students, she said that the institutions need to be broad in their approach to the incident and support to the concerned victims. “There also needs to be rehabilitative measures for the victims. We need to lend enough support and fill courage in the girl, in addition to extending support to the victim's family. We need to be in constant touch with her,” she said.

She also said that in few cases where a girl is sexually assaulted or exploited, the family of the victim did not support her and traumatised her to take back her statement in the case, which is another cause that the victim becomes disturbed and loses hope.

Suggestions were offered in the meeting on improving the situation of handling crimes against women and moral policing instances in the society and bringing public awareness in the society on such crimes.

Few suggestions included training and sensitising special juvenile officers in police stations in cases of crimes against children. Others were strengthening the existing legal system and laws in favour of the victims, formation of a local panel of advocates who would offer advice and support to the victims, involvement of student welfare officers in colleges and educational institutions and educating college authorities and teachers/lecturers on safety of women, among others.

Narendra Nayak said that if we look at incidents of moral policing in totality, it is evident how the authorities try to close up the issue. Sometimes, the police and criminals are hand in glove with each other, which leads to cover-up of crimes. These kind of incidents are dangerous for the society, he said.

Activists such as Vidya Dinker from Forum Against Atrocities on Women (FAAW), P B D'Sa of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Muneer Katipalla of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and others were participated in the meeting.