Youth of Kanukuta gram panchayat in Gummadidala mandal are at the forefront of a movement to make a social commitment to punish perpetrators of crime against women.
The Kanukuta Gram Panchayat has passed a unanimous resolution to boycott and expel anyone involved in crimes against women and children and hand them over to the police.
“Dishonouring/ violating the rights of women and girls have increased in recent times. We are committed to the protection of women and girls. As part of that, we have passed a resolution to protect the rights and honour of women. There will be no place for those who misbehave with girls or women/ or make any attempt of rape. There will be no place for them and they would be expelled from the village. They would be handed over to the police,” read the resolution that was passed on 16th of this month.
Pride of place
“Girls and women are not being treated or honoured properly in society and it is not good for us. We wanted to protect the respect and honour of girls and women. Hence, we had passed a resolution to expel from the village anyone who is involved in such incidents. We wish that this should go to the notice of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” village sarpanch Beku Anjaiah Neelamma said.
The village with a population of about 6,000 has 12 wards out of which six are represented by women.
Local youth organisations have motivated the ward members to pass the resolution. They have discussed the issue with vice-sarpanch P. Govardhan Reddy who readily accepted their proposal.
“The news of the recent incident at Hanumakonda, where a youth raped a minor, has hit us hard and we have not been able to digest the news. We have decided that such incidents should not take place at our village. As a deterrent we have decided to request the panchayat to pass the resolution. They have immediately accepted our request,” said B. Narasinga Rao, son of Ms. Neelamma, who is active in local youth organisations.
Building awareness
The youth of the village are have not stopped with getting a resolution passed. They have been convincing the public representatives of other villages in the mandal to pass similar resolutions.
“There are 11 villages in our mandal and we are going around to every village and meeting the elected representatives asking them to pass a similar resolutions. Elected representatives of Ramireddybavi, Veerareddypally, Kothapally, Domadugu and Gummadidala are ready to pass this resolution,” Mr Narsinga Rao told The Hindu.