Towards empowerment of women and children

SPEWC, a district-level statutory body, launched

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Integrated Child Protection Scheme also launched

Collector highlights need to focus on trafficking

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— Photo: A.V.G. Prasad

West Godavari ZP Chairperson M. Seshu Babu and Collector A. Vani Prasad honouring streetchildren with a bouquet at the launch of the SPEWC in Eluru on Friday.

ELURU: The Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children (SPEWC) was launched here on Friday as a district-level statutory body to address issues concerning women and children and to strive for their empowerment. It would function as an arm of the State-level body – Andhra Pradesh Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women.

Objective

An Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), another forum to focus on the plight of children, was also launched on the same platform.

K. Raghava Rao, Project Director, Women and Child Welfare Department, who is member-convener of the district-level body, said the society would strive to promote gender equity, provide vulnerable women and children access to quality services and opportunities for building an equitable society through convergence and partnership.

It would also work in sync with various governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations and international development agencies for effective implementation of the programmes and services meant for the welfare of children and women.

Domestic violence

Collector A. Vani Prasad would act as Chairperson and Superintendent of Police C. Ravi Varma as vice-chairperson of the society.

Speaking at a function in this connection, the Collector said the emergence of the SPEWC and the ICPS had become necessitated in the wake of increasing incidence of domestic violence.

Some 10,000 cases of dowry harassment are reported in the State every year. The incidence of infanticide and foeticide is on the higher side. The female dropout rate is on the rise and the number of cases of women and girls subjected to trafficking is growing. The Collector highlighted the need for society to focus on trafficking in women and children and usurious activities of micro finance activities, subjecting SHG women to exploitation and harassment in the district.

M.M. Bhagawath, DIG of Police, Eluru range, called for an integrated approach with all stakeholders to handle the complex problems of trafficking and child abuse, and said it could be possible only through bodies like the SPEWC.

Citing an instance wherein Narsapur Revenue Divisional Officer S. Venkatamaiah had closed down a brothel in Bhimavaram for six months by exercising his powers under the Immoral Trafficking Act, the DIG called upon the revenue officers to act in a similar manner in their capacity as executive magistrates and cooperate with the police in combating the proliferating incidence of women trafficking in the district. SP C. Ravi Varma also spoke.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/29/stories/2010052955500300.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu