Manjula Manasa, chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women, on Thursday directed the District Social Welfare Officer to improve conditions in the Backward Classes and Minorities (BCM) hostels and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes hostels in and around Udupi.
Chairing a district-level officers meeting here, she said that there were some complaints about these hostels, which should be taken care of. In one of the BCM hostels, though there were 32 girl students, there was just one bathroom and one toilet. The number of bathrooms and toilets should be increased.
Some students in one of the hostels had complained about the poor quality of food. There were no complaint and suggestion boxes in almost all these hostels. It was essential that suggestion boxes were installed in all these hostels. Some students had also complained that there was no one to whom they could tell their grievances, she said.
Premnath, District Social Welfare Officer, said he would soon call a meeting of the wardens of these hostels and direct them to attend to all these complaints including the quality of food. Ms. Shyamala Bhandary, Commission member, said that many a time women in distress did not know whom to approach. Hence, a public grievance cell should be established at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, she said.
Radha Das, social worker, said that in many places the Child Development Programme Officers did not have vehicles. Even the jeep at the Kundapur women’s police station was an old one. There were six deaths of girl students in the Kundapur-Byndoor region in the last six months, she said. Ms. Bhandary said that the Superintendent of Police had assured to solve these cases in two months.
R. Vishal, Deputy Commissioner, said that the administration had purchased three vehicles to provide healthcare in remote areas. But this led to a strike by an organisation. The healthcare vehicles could not provide healthcare to one community only. In order to provide better security to girls and women students, the administration had directed the schools to take steps to see that students reached their houses in the evening by 6.30 p.m., he said.
Fatima, a woman from Baikady village, carrying a baby, wept and said that she had approached the Gram Panchayat several times for a site, but there was no response. Dr. Vishal assured her that he would look into the problem.
Sunita Shetty, Udupi Taluk Panchayat member, said that some disabled women suffering from health problems due to the spraying of the pesticide endosulfan, had not received their monthly pensions. Dr. Vishal told her to approach the Tahsildar and the Social Security Officer.
