Kolkata, Jan 29 (PTI) Around 5,000 cases of atrocities against women, including incidents of domestic violence, were recorded by the West Bengal Women’s Commission and addressed by courts in the past one year, a senior state government official said on Wednesday.
Besides those cases, there must have been countless others which were handled by the counsellors and officials of the Commission at the initial stage during the period before reaching court, she said.
“Around 5,000 cases were recorded by the Women’s Commission and addressed by the courts including Lok Adalat on family and gender issues,” the official told PTI after inauguration of the stall of the state Women’s Commission at the International Kolkata Bookfair ground. “We try our best to deliver justice to the aggrieved party in a fair manner. We also try to instil gender sensitivity among her family members in case of complaints related to domestic abuse,” Sanghamitra Ghosh, Principal Secretary of the Department of Women and Chief Welfare and Social Welfare, said at the programme.
The senior IAS officer said the Commission’s stall at the book fair was set up to spread the message of zero tolerance towards cases of abuse against women – from domestic violence to stalking, molestation, rape and even trolling on the net – and motivate women and girls to muster the courage to come up with official complaints and suppress incidents out of fear.
People, particularly women, are aware of the existence and functioning of the state Women’s Commission, Ghosh said.
“But in a place like the book fair… frequented by lakhs of people… the Commission’s visible presence will instil more confidence and courage in them not to take things lying down but communicate and connect with the officials of our pre-litigation counselling and complaint cell (PLCC) and expect their issues are attended and addressed,” she said.
West Bengal Women’s Commission Chief Leena Gangopadhyay told PTI that forms are available in the stall to file complaints.
“Our counsellors ensure full confidentiality to the complainant and use code names to describe crimes like domestic violence while noting down the complaints so that even those around her are not able to know the subject. We follow it up with future communication with her at her convenient time and space,” Gangopadhyay said.
A commission official said around 30 complaints had been lodged at the Commission’s stall at the book fair last year.
The Commission has lined up several programmes at its stall to build up awareness among the public about gender sensitivity and to sensitise women about gender violence and discrimination through a slew of programmes this year. PTI SUS NN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.