Members of All India Democratic Women’s Association, Progressive Organisation of Women and other outfits on Saturday blamed the Andhra Pradesh government for its knee-jerk approach towards repeated child abuse cases in the State, especially in Guntur district, and sought concrete steps to curb the scourge.
AIDWA member Ganga Bhavani said the lackadaisical reaction by the National Women’s Commission chief Nannapaneni Rajakumari infuriated women across the State.
“She (Ms. Rajakumari) is more keen to spreading awareness and staging workshops than taking severe action against the perpetrators. It is a shame that as many as a dozen incidents were reported from Guntur district. We are planning to convene a round table on May 20 to intensify our struggle in safeguarding the girl child,” she said.
Ms. Bhavani said the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was forced to react by staging ‘Save Girl Child’ rally in Vijayawada only after Dachepalli incident took an ugly turn. “It was more a political rally than a morale-boosting event as TDP was keen on scoring political points,” she said.
‘Sops not enough’
“Announcing ex gratia and other sops to victims is not what the people expect from the rulers but measures to curb the scourge. Efforts should be made to change the mindset of the male-dominated society,” she added.
AIDWA senior member Sridevi said both the Central and State governments had utterly failed in protecting the honour of girl child as many incidences were reported across the country and it was shameful Andhra Pradesh was rated fourth in atrocities towards girl child. “Though efforts are on to bring in an ordinance awarding death sentence for child abuse, the issue was tackled in a ham-handed manner”.
