THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If all the panchayats in Kerala had gone the way of Mararikulam south in Alappuzha district, Kerala could well become a state with minimum atrocities against women.
A crime map survey in 2012 was conducted in Mararikulam south but the survey report was not kept in ‘cold storage’. The panchayat decided to take follow-up action with regard to survey findings on the vulnerabilities faced by women in the panchayat. The panchayat, in what could be called a model for the state, formed ‘women-friendly centres’ in all the 23 wards where women can boldly step in and present their problems, be it domestic violence, verbal abuse or harassment.
There is library and yoga training attached to these centres which are functioning under the control of ward-level ‘jagathra samithis’. These samithis have the president and secretary of Kudumbashree Area Development societies and ‘anganwadi’ teachers as members which makes the communication with women in wards more easy.
It was the shocking findings of the survey which prompted the panchayat to take ‘defensive’ steps to protect women in the panchayat. Of the total 4681 women who participated in the survey, 59.9 per cent said had faced some kind of abuse from verbal - through gestures or mobile phone text messages - to physical attacks. A total of 5.23 per cent of the women said they had faced physical attacks, 11.32 per cent said they faced domestic violence, 1.69 per cent forced sexual relationship and 0.13 per cent sexual harassment.
“There was a lot of controversy on whether to publish the survey report fearing that it will damage the reputation of the panchayat. However, an Union Government Secretary who was impressed by such an effort in conducting the survey insisted on publishing the report. We need funds to do the follow-ups more successfully,” Thomas Isaac MLA, who initiated the survey, told ‘Express’. There are ‘caution boards’ with helpline numbers installed by the panchayat in the areas which were found as crime-prone in the survey. Among other measures taken for safety of women were installing street lights and clearing up of abandoned areas in the panchayats where crimes against women were high. “Now the women of the panchayat have a platform to share their experiences and grievances. We have taken every possible step to address their problems which has helped to bring down considerably the atrocities against women after the survey,” said panchayat vice-president Sheela Suresh, who is also holding the charge of president at present.
There is continuous awareness campaign conducted in the eight schools under the panchayat and training is given to girl students in martial arts to defend themselves against physical attacks. “An office of the Legal Services Authority is also functioning at the panchayat and it provides free legal assistance to women in case they lodge complaints with the police,” says Sheela Suresh.
