“Women and Child Safety”

Background
The lack of safety of women and children in India is a concern for all. In the wake of recent incidents of crime against women and children in different parts of the country, it has become imperative that fast actions and sustainable steps be taken to minimize incidents against our Women and Children. The 160,000+ strong “Transform India with Narendra Modi” online community has come together to collectively identify the key issues, the root causes and solutions for the Government and Citizens to implement.

Key Issues Identified:
1. Rapes
2. Killings
3. Assaults
4. Family Violence
5. Abuse (Physical and Verbal)
6. Sexual harassment at work
7. Eve teasing
8. Human trafficking
9. Child abduction
10. Child molestation
11. Child labour

Root Causes Identified:
1. Men are not sensitive enough about women needs and their place in civil society
2. Women are still considered inferior to men
3. Men try to dominate women
4. Hard punishment is not given to offenders
5. Weak and time consuming judicial system
6. Not enough electronic surveillance around the cities
7. Non-existent/Ineffective emergency numbers and response mechanism to tackle women and child emergency situations
8. Lack of moral education in India’s education system
9. The Police is ineffective, has a bad image and considered not approachable
10. Lack of Women Toilets, special compartments, security in general.
11. Girl child is still treated as a taboo in various communities
12. Low literacy rates in rural India
13. Insufficient or Ineffective Self Help Groups
14. Child labour laws not implemented effectively
15. Electronic/print media projecting women as a commodity and an object of desire.

Solutions Identified:
1. Reporting of crime against women to be made very quick and easy
2. Stricter censorship of movies, print and electronic media content
3. Sex education to be provided at school
4. Self-defence programs should be made mandatory for children at school
5. Counsellors in all government and private schools
6. A one-stop emergency helpline should be developed to help women/children in any distress
7. Setting up the dedicated, fast track benches in the existing courts with strict and harsh punishment for the offenders
8. Increase electronic surveillance
9. Women need to be empowered through Mobile and Social Media
10. Educating the society about gender discrimination
11. Better facilities for sanitation should be provided in rural areas
12. The image of police should be given a makeover and they should become easy to approach
13. More representation of Women and their participation in law making
14. Special court with retired IPS & Judges(50% female) for rape, deadline within 60 days verdict should be out
15. Punishment of 14 years or higher for rape, and death for rape & murder

Women and Child Safety – Few Citizen Posts and Comments
1. Provide physical zones of comfort & ease of travel within the Transport system for women and very young children - special compartments, toilets, security, emergency buttons, etc. – Kayar Raghavan

2. Mass media should not promote women as object of desire – Ashu Jain 3. Promote seminars in schools for love and care to living beings. Make them to think what other will feel of their rude behaviour and what you feel when others behave to you on the same situation – Varun Raj

4. Fast track courts should be set up and rape, molestation cases should be solved quickly so that the victims don’t undergo the trauma for years. Justice should be immediate, not prolonged. The courts should be able to distinguish between a genuine case and a fake case filed for revenge. The verdict should be delivered within 1-3 months – Vijaylakshmi Narayanan

5. Short term workaround: Women sanitation a must (as most beastly acts such as in Badaun happens as women have to travel away from home for sanitation) which Modiji raised in his campaign as well. Start with UP please – Saswata Barman

6. I suggest that Government moves something constitutional like setting a 3 judge bench as final authority on rape, murder cases which is empowered to give capital punishment and has to conclude each case with a month at most. If media carries a campaign like 'hang a rapist a day' along with Government, then it will establish fear of law – Harish Agrawal

7. Ban pornography web sites and display of women as article media. Social values should be emphasized in the school, colleges and as well as in organised and unorganized sectors – Sonali Potankar

8. Human trafficking is a key issue in this regard. – Srinivasan Shishadri

9. I personally feel FIRs to made online ...& site to under strict checks & balances by special team for proper functioning 24 hrs – B. K. Gupta

10. We required one or two police station only for women in each district where women can freely talk to police about her problem. Most of the time women feels shy to explain about their problem to the male staff. If the whole police station is only for the women then they feel safe as well they listen to women problem. This police station is operational 24* 7. Only rape centre proposed in each district not the solution but we required special women police cell who tackle each and every kind of situation. Now a days eve teasing cases are increasing day by day so we need a special force who handle such kind of cases. Also we required strict law for the women safety and we required such cases should be highlighted in public which will give example to others – Robin Tiwari

11. Link the appraisals of the police station personnel’s to the crime rates / incidents in their area of control – Chittaranjan Ghosh

12. Toilets in every home and in every school. ...One of the reasons for drop outs of girls from school in our country is lack of toilets. We also know how women and girl children are put at risk using the open field. Toilet revolution – Madhu Menon

13. To prevent attacks against women, people should be educated about the greatness of womanhood. Only woman can bring a new life to the world, whether - male or female. So women should be loved and respected by both men and women – Shahji Kudiyat

14. Low cost sanitary napkins for all woman.. A large % of rural woman still use dirty clothes instead of napkins and it seriously affect their health... There are many organisations working for providing very low cost napkins... Government should take steps to promote such initiatives and provide support – Dileep SN

15. For starters, provide a platform at colony level for residents in the colony to be able to report (option to report anonymously may be considered if it is felt to have due merit) cases of eve teasing – Ashish Saxena

16. The basic issue is related to our social system which doesn't treat women as individuals. Young men born and brought up in families in which women are treated miserable and are subject to domestic violence repeat the cycle by committing crimes like physical violence and rape. We need to educate our people. We need social change plus economic independence of our female citizens. That will solve 90% of the problem, rest 10% can be tackled through legal and legislative process – Amit Kumar

17. Point no.1 Provide incentives to havaldar, inspectors, sub-inspectors, Dy. SP, and the police stations who record the maximum numbers of FIRs related to women/child abuse, rape, molestations, eve teasing. This way at least maximum number of records will exist. then solutions to each FIRs is the next step – Chakresh Jain

18. Education at ground level to men: They need to be educated in terms of equality and respect to be given to women. Thus this education can be achieved with school curriculum and also calling upon various NGOS to hold workshops/street plays at various localities etc. – Sumeeta Sharma

19. Key is if both the sexes are involved in the national development, we grow better, sooner and in happier mode. Blessed are we to be born in India, where we have a very strong family system. It works well cause both the gender work for it – Taru Sharma

20. Women have to move around the city after dark with fear, because many areas have places which don't have enough lighting. These places are the hubs of the anti-social elements – Jineesh

21. It is agreed women in the society are being marginalized and atrocities are being played on them. Strong rules and regulations are needed. But a safety valve is needed in these rules and regulations so that misuse is prevented – Rajinder Arya

22. There shouldn't be any compromise on women safety and child abuse. There should be time frame for implementation and execution. Major concern is fake family Violence cases, large segments of the population still facing lots of difficulties, troubles and pains in the old age parents and other family members which include women on the other side as well. Some serous punishment should also be fixed against those register fake cases – Ram Sharma

23. Awareness regarding legal protection for women and children ensured by the government in these issues may be given effectively through Television which is the most spreading medium. Political parties should not safe guard the offenders – Easwaran TC

24. First and the foremost, the police should be educated to behave properly with women in distress. I have witnessed some cases where the police are too rude with women when they approach them for justice at their level and the women in distress are driven out and sometimes they are branded badly instead of the culprit, because they don't want to take any complaints and probe into the crime, but wash their hands off. It is easier to drive away a lady than a man unless the media exposes their actions. If the police take strict action against the offenders then the rate of crime against women and girl children will come down drastically. But that is not the case in many instances, bribe plays a key role in many criminal activities and once offender bribes the police he is let free and he becomes like a man eater which tastes the flesh of the humans and starts attacking more and more humans for food, as he also now knows that by bribing the police he can go scot free and he can continue with more and more such serious offences without getting into legal tangles – Veidehi Chillakumari

25. The biggest cause of girls not being wanted in society is the prevailing dowry system in arranging marriages. Things have gone completely out of hand in the villages especially since the girls family has to bear the cost of the marriage as well as the dowry provided. Therefore girls are looked upon as a financial liability which causes tension and distress in most families that have girls to marry off – Adhiraj Dutt