District panchayat formulates ambitious plan to fight dowry

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In its attempts to prevent violence against women and dowry harassment and up the guard against such practices, the district panchayat has formulated a detailed plan to transform the district into a Totally Vigilant District (Samboorna Jagratha District). Vigilance committees from district level to panchayat and ward levels will be strengthened and extensive campaigns and awareness programmes  against dowry will be organised.

The district panchayat will helm various activities that will be carried out from July 26 to August 15 and action plans are being formulated to transform the district into a totally vigilant one by August 15. The vision of the programme is not just against dowry but also aims at women empowerment.A meeting towards this end was organised on Monday at EMS Memorial Hall which involved the participation of block panchayat and grama panchayat presidents. It has been decided to organise extensive awareness campaigns against dowry.

It has also been decided to reorganise the grama panchayat and ward-level vigilance committees and make them operational within the stipulated time frame. The services of ICDS supervisors, Kudumbashree facilitators and anganwadi teachers will be utilised to report and intervene in cases of atrocities against women.

Monitoring committees will be set up at division level. These committees will review the performance of 50 grama panchayat wards. These monitoring committees will provide technical and legal assistance to vigilance committees. Ward-level activities will be led by panchayat members and anganwadi workers. They will collect details of marriages taking place at the ward level and hand them over to the vigilance committees. The bride and groom will be given pre-marital counseling as well as the contact numbers of the vigilance committees.