The need to rejig laws and systems in place for women and child welfare so as to ensure their personal and social development was highlighted at a public hearing of the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission (KARC) here on Tuesday.
The hearing which focused on women and child welfare highlighted the delay in ensuring justice to women and children who had had to face crimes against them. A wide range of issues were brought up at the hearing.
V.P. Zuhara of Nisa said talaq even if declared with a one-month-gap between utterances could not be unilateral. “As things are, women are present neither at the time of marriage or divorce. Any law on Muslim women’s marriage should make it mandatory for women to be present at both these instances,” Ms. Zuhara said.
She also highlighted reports of female circumcision being reported in the State.
Vipin Raj of Balasangham stressed the need to set aside 30% of the budget to be set aside for children’s development. A child welfare department would go a long way in addressing issues related to children.
Sasi Kumar of Manushi said caste certificates were being denied to children of those from the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes who had mixed marriages. This had had a severe effect on the prospects of the children, especially their education.
P.E. Usha of the Kerala Mahila Samakhya said the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act did not focus on the problems of child who faces abuse within families. For instance, even if a girl had been abused by her father, the summons for her to appear in court were sent to the father.
Suggestions
Representatives of GI Labs put forth a number of suggestions, including facilities for mothers to breastfeed their children in public places. A department for women was yet to be realised. It would help prevent duplication of resources and expertise among various government agencies, they said.
P. Radhamani of the Kerala Working Women’s Association said internal complaints committees were yet to be set up as per norms in many workplaces or take a favourable decision. There was also a cloak of secrecy around such committees.
Sulochana Ramachandran of Women’s Voice said they found that the city Corporations of Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi did not have such committees, and the court had recently directed them to set these up within a month.
Shyda Begum of Kollam said differently-abled children were not getting their scholarship amounts in full. Special children in POCSO cases should be housed not in ordinary child care homes but in special homes where they could be taken care of properly, she said.
