The Delhi High Court has pulled up the Delhi Government for its move to run the awareness campaign on sexual harassment of women and children mostly in English language saying it would not serve the purpose of reaching out to the target groups.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Sunita Gupta, hearing the writ petition of a victim of a sexual offence who was not paid compensation, said on Friday that most of the publicity materials were in English , while the offenders and victims in a majority of cases were illiterate and belonged to the lower strata of society.
The targeted sections could not read or understand what was being publicised by the Government bodies, said the Court and reminded the State Government that the publicity material was “not meant for bureaucrats” and the medium of the message should be Hindi, a language that the common people are familiar with.
The campaign is part of the State Government’s plan to sensitise people, especially women and children, about the nature of sexual offences as well as stringent punishment laid down for such offences.
The Court had earlier imposed a fine of Rs.2 lakh on the State Government for its failure to apprise it of the steps taken to create mass awareness on the issue and directed that the money be deposited in the Nirbhaya Fund.
The Court had also observed that the Union Ministry concerned was promoting the Minister rather than focusing on the issue.
The State Government’s Women & Child Development Department informed the Court through an affidavit that it was spending a major chunk of its budget on creating mass awareness about sexual offences against women and children.
