Atrocities against women unabated: Tripurana

Women’s Commission chief says society’s mindset should change

Sangareddy: Even after the enactment of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013, atrocities against women have not stopped, but in fact, taken other forms. The women are crying out for speedy justice and proper implementation of laws to safeguard them from violence.

Speaking to media persons on the concluding day of the two-day programme for creating awareness about laws concerning women’s safety held in Sangareddy, Tripurana Venkataratnam, Chairman, AP and Telangana State Women’s Commission disclosed how women are still far from getting justice against atrocities.

She said getting a receipt for a petition and the copy of the FIR was the right of the petitioner and the duty of the Police Department. But even months after filing the petition, women petitioners were not getting them, she said.

Pointing out certain cases of atrocities against women, the women’s panel chief felt that the jurisdiction of the police station should not be an issue for taking complaints from women and said it was the duty of the police officers to take the complaint first and then transfer it to the police station of the petitioner’s jurisdiction.

She also demanded that cases where women were lured into having physical relationship with men with the assurance of marriage and later deserted to be treated under IPC Section 376 (rape), instead of treating them under Section 420 (cheating) as being done at present.

She also expressed her anguish over practices like Devadasi system which still exists decades after the enactment of Devdasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act of 1988. As a solution to rape crimes in India, she opined that mindset of the society should change, the young generation should become the agents of change and that the system should implement the laws properly and swiftly.