THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Neetham, a state level campaign for
gender justice and to prevent domestic violence, abuse of
women and children in the state with the support of women neighbourhood groups of
Kudumbashree concluded on Thursday. Over 38 lakh Kudumbashree women members in a survey as part of the campaign revealed that they had suffered some form of abuse in their lives. At a talk show as part of the campaign, 28 women members narrated their experiences in all grit and grace.
The campaign is the first step for women to speak out which would threaten and inhibit the offenders from repeating the crimes be it domestic violence or any form of abuse. The next step will be to conduct a survey on how women and their families could be alleviated from poverty and could choose a livelihood option after joining Kudumbashree, Local Self-Government (LSG) Minister KT Jaleel said.
Inaugurating the campaign event ahead of the presentation of the
Neetham campaign report,
Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar said Kudumbashree’s projects have turned out to be a magic wand for empowering the women. The campaign Neetham that began on Feb 10 took off on full swing across the state and it concluded with a three-day programme in the state capital from March 20. The aim of the campaign is to ensure a child-friendly and women-friendly ambience at the local level, Kudumbashree executive director S Harikishore said after presenting the report.
The campaign which was underway with the support of local self-government (LSG) institutions targets for child-friendly and women-friendly local bodies. Awareness sessions on child rights, woman’s rights, gender justice and legalities are behind held across the state as part of the campaign. “Through the first phase vulnerability mapping survey conducted by Kudumbashree, LSGs have earmarked Rs 11 crore for child and women protection schemes at the panchayat level,” Harikishore told TOI.
As part of that, family get-together meetings were organised in 2, 53,906 Kudumbashree Ayalkootams (Neighbourhood groups of women) and 906 community development societies (CDS). Films on prevention of violence against children and women are screened as part of the awareness sessions. Competitions including photo contests are held for the participants on the topics women and employment, women empowerment through Kudumbashree, women and governance, Kudumbashree officials said. Kudumbashree gender resource persons, block coordinators, community counsellors, facilitators and other officials had actively organised the campaign.
