Respect for women will curb crime against them: NCW chief

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lalitha Kumaramangalam, who has been appointed chief of the National Commission for Women (NCW), feels that respect for women would help to curb the crime and atrocities against them.

“When there is respect everything else falls in place. Rights would be ensured to individuals when there is respect. We have laws, but what we lack is implementation,” she told The Hindu here hours after her appointment was announced by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

“I can’t change everything overnight, but my approach will be taking everyone on board regardless of caste, creed and gender.

We should stop politicising gender and if we do that, much more work can be done,” she said.

Ms. Kumaramangalam (56), who runs an NGO called Prakriti, said her expertise in NGO work could also help her in bringing out reports and analysis on what women lacked and how those issues could be addressed through partnership with various stakeholders.

“Today there is no proper data on migrant women labourers and even many self-help groups are not organised. We should prepare reports on all these issues,” she said.

The national skills development programme that the government was planning to roll out should target more women and young girls.

On how Tamil Nadu fares in terms of gender issues, she said, “Tamil Nadu fares much better in terms of gender bias, compared to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In U.P., women are treated like commodities. Chief Minister Jayalalitha is not gender unfriendly.

The bureaucracy in the State here is sensitive to gender issues,” she noted.