VIKAS SHARMA
JAMMU : As March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day (IWD) as a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, and violence and abuse against women, the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a constant rise in the number of complaints for deprivation of rights/violence against women. These complaints are registered with the National Commission for Women (NCW).
As per data available, NCW registered 23 complaints for deprivation of rights/violence against women in J&K UT in 2019 which further increased to 79 in 2020. In 2021, as many as 157 complaints were registered with NCW in 2021. As on January 25, 2022, a total of 13 cases were registered with NCW in the UT.
Overall, a total of 11358 complaints for deprivation of rights/violence against women were registered with the NCW across the country followed by 11872 in 2020, 15828 in 2021 and 986 as on January 25, 2022.
“Like other parts of the country, International Women’s Day is being celebrated with much fanfare by government, NGOs/social organisations thereby organising seminars, debates, discussions, conclaves etc to discuss about the women empowerment but there is an urgent need to execute all suggestions/plans at ground level if all the stakeholders are serious to bring about any transformation in the women empowerment in J&K UT.
Mere discussion on women empowerment by inviting the panelists/specialists to celebrate the day will not serve the purpose at all”, officials said.
“Data relating to complaints for deprivation of rights/violence against women registered in the Commission under various categories during the last three years and current year. The Commission has also taken suo moto cognizance of a large number of cases/ instances of violation/ deprivation of the rights of women.
In fact, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had recently advised the UT Administration and other States to strengthen/set-up a mechanism for providing adequate assistance and timely support to the vulnerable sections of the society including women, children, senior citizens etc.
“J&K recorded as many as 19256 cases of crime against women in the last five years from 2015-2020. A total of 3366 cases of crime against women were registered in 2015, followed by 2850 in 2016 and 3129 in 2017, 3437 in 2018, 3069 in 2019 and 3405 in 2020. An analysis of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data also indicates that crimes against women have continuously been on the rise”, they added.