Team Herald
MARGAO: Expressing concern about the rise in various types of crimes against women in the South Goa District, two NGOs – Bailancho Ekvott and Goa Women’s Forum – on Friday urged the South Goa Police and the Director Panchayats, South, to implement measures to eliminate violence against women.
Auda Viegas, President of Bailancho Ekvott and Lorna Fernandes of Goa Women’s Forum along with other activists submitted a memorandum to Superintendent of Police, South, Abhishek Dhania and Deputy Director of Panchayats Prasidh Naik with a list of suggestions to improve women’s safety.Fernandes called on the authorities to delink the office of the Block Development Officer (BDO) from the post of Protection Officer, appointed under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
“This way, the Directorate of Women and Child Development (DWCD) handles this matter and the women survivors of domestic violence get proper attention. This will enable the BDO to focus on his core area of work, which is Panchayati Raj and the success of the GPDP Act, among other responsibilities,” said Fernandes.
They have also demanded that the government activate the Goa Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan (GPMSA) so that it devotes its full attention to empowering the newly elected women panchayat members to conduct meetings, prepare agendas and prepare budget proposals, for instance. Other demands include organising block level training through the DWCD and GIPARD for women panchayat members on how to prevent crimes against women and children, to make arrangements for programmes covering all seven talukas of the South Goa district, for the observation of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2023, by collaborating with the concerned BDO office and GPMSA.
The activists also requested the authorities to plan block-wise sensitisation and orientation workshops for women panchayat members on the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation.
With regard to the police, both NGOs requested the Superintendent to make the beat police system effective in all villages and towns of the South Goa District, and also stressed on the need to make the tenant verification system fully operational across the district, even in remore areas.
“Consider establishing a Neighborhood Crime Watch Cell by involving women members of the community in villages and towns and ensure the presentation of an ‘Annual State of Law and Order, Security and Crime Report’ by the police inspectors concerned, at the meetings of the Village Gram Sabhas in their jurisdiction with relevant recommendations for the community,” said the delegation, also calling for the establishment of a full-fledged district level police station exclusively to handle the prevention and investigation of crimes against women and children. The women also demanded the posting of a woman PSI in every police station, who would function as contact nodal officers, to make sure that victims of crime are treated justly.
