Hry to roll out action plan on sexual, gender based violence

With the state continuing to witness a spate of sexual assaults on women across age groups from a three-year-old to a 70-year-old woman, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has decided to implement a “state action plan on sexual and gender based violence”.

The action plan has proposed developing a module to teach reproductive health and sex education as part of compulsory school curriculum, a mobile app for dissemination of messages to prevent sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), an inter-religious committee to promote social and religious dialogue towards zero tolerance to SGBV, special mechanism within the existing courts system to address SGBV cases, vulnerability mapping of at risk children, among other initiatives in a bid to ensure a violence free environment for women and children in the state.

Haryana, which is already known for skewed-sex ratio and rigid patriarchal order, had seen a large number of brutal rapes and murders over the past few years. The spine chilling incidents of brutal gangrape and murders of minor girls in Haryana earlier this year had even led to widespread shock and despair across the country at the inability of BJP led State Government to prevent such ghastly crimes.

Considering the dismal state of affairs pertaining to crime against women and children in Haryana, the BJP Government in the state has decided to implement an action plan with comprehensive, coordinated and sustained multi-sectoral approach required to address SGBV.

Under this, six key areas identified for specific interventions to address violence included child development, education, women empowerment, health, media and legal service.

In Haryana, the statistics of crime against women speaks for themselves… Haryana had registered 1016 cases of rape from April 2017 to January 2018, which averages to more than three rapes a day.

From April 2017 to January 31 this year, a total of 9196 cases of crimes against women were registered in the state. During the same period, a large number of 2041 cases of molestation, 2495 of kidnapping of women/girls, 2735 cases of dowry harassment, 264 cases of eve teasing, 155 cases of attempt to rape, 131 cases of rape in elopement and 205 dowry deaths were registered in Haryana, according to the government’s data.

8999 cases of crimes against women were registered in 2015-2016, which increased to 9499 in previous fiscal 2016-17. The government’s data also suggests that the cases of molestation, attempt to rape, eve teasing, and kidnapping of women/girls also witnessed a sharp increase in past three years in Haryana.

What’s more, Haryana has also earned the dubious distinction of topping the country in the number of gang rapes. A total of 191 gang rapes took place in the state in 2016, or one every two days, according to the report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

Ironically, Haryana was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch his ambitious ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ project in 2015, with a great pomp and show.

According to the census 2011, Haryana was the worst performing state in regard to sex ratio which stood at 879 against national average of 943 while the child sex ratio (0-6 years) stood at 834 females per 1000 males against the national average of 919.

“There is no action plan on sexual and gender based violence at the national level yet and the purpose of the state action plan is to increase safety of women and children by strengthening the systemic response to all kinds of violence in Haryana,” said an official of Department of Women and Child Development.

Haryana’s state action plan on sexual and gender based violence focuses on three types of preventions-  primary, secondary and tertiary- which target different population groups and have specific strategies to address SGBV.

The primary prevention measures include public information and awareness in mass media, workplaces and communities, educational programmes in educational institutions, government policy establishing frameworks and standards for preventing violence against women and promoting gender equality, the official said.

The secondary prevention measures drafted by the government includes  sensitization of newly married women, new mothers at risk of violence,  behavioural change programs for men while  the tertiary prevention includes  emergency medical treatment, facility of  accommodation, counseling and advocacy for survivors of violence, the official added.

Among other key activities to be undertaken under the action plan included review and strengthening of the laws to combat abuse of cyber space, development of a status report on street children, increase posting of female teachers in schools, initiate a policy dialogue with Transport Department to address sexual harassment in all modes of transport, setting up of emergency fund at district level for speedy response to SGBV survivors.

Amid mounting public anger over crimes against women in the state, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal had recently announced a time frame for police officers to complete the investigation into a rape case in one month and in eve-teasing within 15 days.

The State Government has also decided to debar the accused in rape and eve-teasing cases from getting government facilities except ration. 

In case, the accused is convicted and sentenced, he would not be eligible for facilities such as old age pension, pension for the physically disabled persons, driving and arm licenses in the state.