NEW DELHI, May 6: Come January 1, 2017. Every mobile phone in India will be fitted with a panic button that can be used by women in danger, Minister for Child and Women Development Maneka Gandhi said today.
“Panic buttons will be mandatory from January 1, 2017 and any woman in danger can press it. Earlier mobile phones will be retrofitted,” she told Rajya Sabha while replying to a private member’s resolution on women safety issues.
An app is also being developed through which at least 10 people will get an alarm in case of an emergency.
The phones will also have GPS so that even if the molester throws the mobile, the location of the woman can be traced, she said.
Maintaining that Panchayati Raj has empowered women with 2 lakh of them becoming sarpanches, Gandhi lamented that sadly in many cases, their husbands did the actual work and were called “sarpanchpati” and “pradhanpatis” while the women remained in veils (ghunghat).
Elaborating on other measures to protect women from sexual harassment, she said the government has ensured sexual harassment committees in every work place and “Finance Minister has been requested by us to declare in audit that there will be one woman director in every company’s board.”
She said that instead of wife or daughters, every company board would soon have independent directors.
Also, it is being ensured that there are 33 per cent women in police force which will ensure women safety, Gandhi
The Minister said there will be ‘one-stop centres’ for women who have been victims of violence and 130 such centres will be opened this year, while the government has plans to take it to 660. As soon as states provide 300 square feet of land for such centres, they will be made within two months.
Gandhi said the work by government in preventing female foeticide has led to good results and in a state like Haryana, in one year the ratio of females has increased from 830 to 907 per 1000 males, she said.
The Minister said India’s largest widow home was being built in Vrindavan which will have a capacity to house 1,000 women and provide various facilities to ensure a dignified life to widows.
For the first time, a national register of sexual offenders was being created and a women’s safety helpline 181 has been set up through Nirbhaya fund.
Gandhi said government has introduced an e-Mahila Haat where any women can display products ranging from mehendi to cooked food free of cost and buyers can get back to her address.
“A couple of lakh women have already done this and we have got queries from the likes of Flipkart and Amazon that they want to be partner in it,” she said.
The Minister lamented that industry bodies like FICCI, Assocham and CII do not have women wing.
There are unique plans like having a gender champion in every class in which boys showing protective attitude towards girls are protected, besides a Mahila police volunteer in villages, she said.
Rajani Patil (Cong) who had moved a private resolution pertaining to sexual exploitation of women, wanted to know the government’s stand on women reservation bill to which the Minister said it is “a political decision”.
Earlier through her resolution, Patil demanded that the government should make stringent provision of capital punishment for rape on girls and women and also for commercial sexual exploitation of girl child and for incestuous rape on girls and women by suitably amending the provisons of the IPC.
She also demanding amending existing social laws so that a woman should inherit half of the movable and immovable property of her husband after her marriage as a measure of social security, besides reserving posts for women in all public employment so that they become economically independent.
Patil also mentioned the Nirbhaya case and instance of rape of a Dalit girl in Kerala.
Anand Bhaskar Ropalu (Cong) demanded more steps for women’s empowerment, while Basavraj Patil (BJP) said there was need for gender harmony rather than gender equality.
Ripun Bora (Cong) too stressed the need for steps on welfare of women. (PTI)
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