Culprits who sexually or physically assault women should be given exemplary punishment, the Sthree Suraksha Samiti has said. It organised a seminar on ‘Safety of women post Nirbhaya’ in Kozhikode on Thursday on the fourth anniversary of Nirbhaya gang-rape case.
“The Centre has a Nirbhaya project. Kerala had a policy much before the Delhi incident. Both are good on paper. If they had been properly implemented, many of the offences against women would not have happened,” said District Child Protection Officer Sheeba Mumtaz, who opened the seminar.
“The incidents that followed Nirbhaya case mocked the concept of women’s safety. One wonders why we have laws here,” said A. Shekhar, a patron of the Samiti.
“None of the culprits in cases of physical or sexual offences against women have been given exemplary punishment. If at least one culprit had got the punishment he deserved, the number of offences would have come down,” said Mini K. Philip, State general secretary of the Samiti.
POCSO Act
According to her, 70 per cent of the culprits even in cases that come under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act walked away free.
“Whenever there is an offence against a woman, discussions centre on her dress and the time when she was outside the safety of home. We need to gain an intellectual maturity to digest that these factors do not matter,” Ms. Philip said.
She blamed the unlimited availability of liquor and intoxicants as a major reason behind the increasing offences against women.
