THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Administrative Reforms Commission under V.S. Achuthanandan has begun a comprehensive review of four laws related to women’s safety and welfare to assess their potency and to recommend changes that could give them more teeth. The laws under the ARC’s scanner are: Dowry Prohibition Act, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
The ARC has sent a detailed questionnaire to the Social Justice Department, the objective being to understand how these laws operate and also their shortcomings. The questions probe whether preventive officers or bodies envisaged in these laws, like say a dowry prohibition officer or ‘jagrutha samithis’ at the panchayat level to prevent immoral traffic or local complaints committee at workplace, have been formed or are functional.
Besides asking the basic questions like the duties of protection officers or the anti-dowry advisory board, the questionnaire probes whether the existing laws allow the state to intervene effectively in burning issues. Here is one of the questions posed under the Immoral Traffic Act: “Is there any provision for government agencies to direct the Women Collective formed in the film industry to question such atrocities?” It also probes deeper on the measures adopted by NORKA before it sends nurses to foreign lands.
The ARC also asks questions that have traditionally been side-stepped by the state. “Kerala is a Tourism Hub so it is also a destination point for trafficking. What steps Tourism Department has taken as a part of responsible Tourism?,” it asks. The Commission also wants to know whether officers involved in the implementation of the laws face any sort of discrimination. “What are the constraints in terms of social prejudices that the department faces in implementing the Act?,” it asks.
The ARC is also concerned with practical issues. Here is what it asks dowry protection officers: “What are the difficulties you face in fulfilling your duties; large geographical area to be covered; of staff; transportation; lack of knowledge about this Act and whom to approach; difficulty in collecting evidence on such a sensitive issue; lack of co-operation from marriage parties in providing evidence; any other?”
