Campaign on violence against girl child launched in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Kanya Kiran, a campaign to stop violence against women and girl child was launched by KISS in association with UN Women and Kalinga Fellowship on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, Women and Child Development Minister Prafulla Samal said despite stringent laws, the violence on women and girl child are increasing day by day. “Unless mindset of people changes, it will be difficult to overcome the problem. Along with the laws, awareness among the masses is the need of the hour. We all should come forward and fight against such evil activities,” he opined.

Little Miss World Galaxy awardee Mrigakshi R Kumar flagged off the campaign and appealed to the gathering to collectively work to provide the future generation a safe and secure environment. Appreciating KISS for initiating the campaign, Lok Sabha MP Prasanna Kumar Patasani urged other social organisations to organise similar awareness programmes and educate the youngsters so that the goal can be achieved.

Founder of KIIT and KISS Achyuta Samanta said the students of KISS and their parents have been engaging themselves in awareness programmes on important social issues during the summer break for the last five years.“This year, 27,000 students of KISS along with their parents and 3,000 women staff of both the institutions will be campaigning on the theme ‘Kanya Kiran’ to stop violence against women and children,” he added.While president of KIIT and KISS Saswati Bal presided over the programme, secretary RN Dash and VC of KISS-DU Harekrishna Satapathy also spoke.

Among others, Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, Chairperson of Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Sandhyabati Pradhan and Commissioner of Police YB Khurania were present.