VIJAYAWADA: Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) department of Krishna district is going to form a committee consisting an official from Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), Vijayawada police, and a woman officer from its own department, to inspect and regulate the working women’s hostels in the city. Many IT companies have come up in the city in the recent years and most of the middle class women working in them stay in women’s hostels.
In the city, over 200 hostels are being run by individuals who have trade licences from the VMC. However, these hostels must follow the rules and regulations laid out for them and ensure that the women occupying them are safe in all manner to get a licence from WD&CW department.
Most hostels in city, which had a trade licence from the VMC, were found flouting these rules and operating without a license from WD&CW department. The WD&CW decided to set up the committee to regulate these hostels.
Women Development and Child Welfare Project Director (PD) K Krishna Kumari said, “Till date, we do not have a structured procedure to avail the licence. However, we are going ahead with the inspections. After the panel is formed, we will bring about reforms and streamline the hostels across the district.”
Guidelines for hostels
According to the government guidelines, all hostels must be equipped with CCTVs, a warden, a watchman and a register to note down ‘in’ and ‘out’ timings of its residents. The hostel building should also be properly ventilated.