Confab Slams Failure of Laws To Protect Women, Children

Hyderabad: India may be progressing in science, technology and the economy, but it is failing to protect its women and children, while violence against them is increasingly being accepted as routine, speakers said at a national convention in Hyderabad on Friday.

Addressing students, academics and activists at the convention organised by the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), former Telangana High Court judge Justice G. Radha Rani questioned why stringent laws had failed to deliver justice. “We have laws such as the POCSO Act, Disha Act, Nirbhaya Act, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and the Dowry Prohibition Act. Yet justice is still not reaching women,” she said, adding that development had little meaning if children and women continued to face violence.

Former CSIR NISCAIR chief scientist, poet and documentary filmmaker Gauhar Raza said the problem extended beyond crime to the mindset of society. “An attitude of looking down upon women exists both at home and outside. Worse, atrocities, rapes, sexual assaults and murders are gradually being treated as natural occurrences, without grief, outrage or resistance,” he said.

Political economist Parakala Prabhakar said democratic spaces for discussion and dissent had steadily weakened. He also pointed to the continuing wage gap, saying women were still paid less than men despite performing the same work.

Student leaders said the issue went beyond individual crimes. AIDSO general secretary Shibashis Praharaj and central joint secretary Shruti Shivhare described the rise in violence as part of a broader cultural attack, calling for society to collectively resist it and ensure justice and dignity for women and children.

The convention unanimously adopted two resolutions. One sought stronger action to curb crimes against women and children, while the other demanded the scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA), action against recurring examination paper leaks and condemned the police action on students protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and elsewhere in the country.

The speakers called for a nationwide movement to safeguard the rights, dignity and safety of girls and children, saying legal provisions alone would not be enough without social and institutional accountability.