Women Safety Whitepaper - Additional Inputs

Dear Friends,

We had originally submitted our Women and Child Safety whitepaper to Smt. Maneka Gandhi - Minister for Women and Child Development.

We would like to take the same to the Home Minister of India soon to request actions on the Women and Child Safety front.

Kindly review the below Issues, Root Causes and Solutions in light of the recent events and advise if you have anything additional to add.

Kindly mention what exactly are you writing about (Issue, Root Cause or Solution) as a prefix to your views. Please post your views as a comment to this post.

Thanks,
Rajendra Pratap Gupta

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Women and Child Safety in India (Issues, Root Causes, Solutions)

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 more