Call for changes to Women Bill

Thiruvananthapuram: A public sitting organised by the home ministry and the state assembly on the upcoming ‘Kerala Protection of Privacy and Dignity of Women’s Bill 2013’ received recommendations from over 45 participants. Among them, SAKHI has demanded that the name of the bill be renamed Prohibition of Sexual Harassment Bill, while the Purushavakasha Samrakshana Samithi (PSS) feels that, along with women, men too are facing discrimination.

SAKHI says the word ‘protection’ in the title points to an age-old attitude. Instead, it recommends use of the word ‘prohibition’ and feels the words ‘privacy’ and ‘dignity of women’ are not appropriately defined.

“We have laws dealing with violence at home and harassment at work place, but we are lacking in a law dealing with the safety of women in ‘public places’. Therefore, the word ‘public place’ must be included in the act and it must be defined properly,” said G. Rejitha, project coordinator at SAKHI, to DC. P.R. Gokul of PSS told DC it is not only men, but their relatives, both old and young, who are also being harassed under domestic violence and dowry-related cases. “Currently, more than 500 minor children and 5,000 old people are facing cases. So there should be a clause to protect innocent people. Also, we feel that instead of including women alone in the bill, transgenders and men too should be given protection,” said Gokul, secretary of PSS.

According to a top assembly official, two more public sittings would be held in Kochi and Kozhikode, and the final bill would be approved after three months. It was on February 14 that the assembly had referred the bill to the subject committee citing that more suggestions had to be collected from the public.Though the subject committee was convened the very next day, the second sitting was delayed by more than three months.