Campaign seeks pledge from political parties on women, children’s safety

MADURAI

‘Rape Free India’, a campaign by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, intends to obtain a pledge from political parties and their candidates in the Lok Sabha elections on the safety of women and children.

Addressing media here on Friday regarding the campaign, P. Rajagopal, president, Nether’s Economic and Educational Development Society (NEEDS), a non-governmental organisation that is coordinating the campaign in Tamil Nadu, said 19 candidates of different political parties had pledged so far.

He said the pledge includes an assurance by the candidates that they will raise the issue in Parliament and strive to make the government formulates a budgeted action plan to make India free from rape, allocation of 10 % of country’s budget for improving safety of women and children.

According to him, the 19 candidates include Congress candidate for Theni constituency E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate for Madurai Su. Venkatesan, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate for Tenkasi Dhanush M. Kumar.

“Across the country, the campaign has managed to get the pledge from 292 Lok Sabha candidates in less than 25 days,” he added.

G. Umashankar, a child rights activist, said though the Parliamentary elections were over in Tamil Nadu, the campaign would continue to create a consensus and commitment among the parties.