Girls are ready to strike sex offenders

ALAPPUZHA: Tucking their shawls tightly around the waist, they are all set for the rough ride! A group of girls from the Mararikulam South panchayat has come together, not to beat coconut husks or twist ropes, but to beat their harassers to a pulp!  The Panchayat is setting an example for others with its attempt to empower the women community against sexual harassments. Under the gender project mooted by the panchayat, training on taekwondo, a Korean martial art, has been given to 620 girls.“The panchayat has begun the project ‘Sthree sauhardha gramam’ to empower the women with the help of the Community Medicine Department of the Alappuzha Medical College, Kudumbasree and other social service organisations,” said Panchayat president N P Snehajan. “The panchayat had conducted a survey on the harassments faced by the women and children, and the results painted a grim picture. Of the 4,681 women, who participated in the survey, 2,804 had faced sexual torture. Most of them said that they had faced lewd remarks or comments,” the president said.“For the holistic development of children, their mental and physical ability must be developed. To facilitate that, the panchayat has started to give taekwondo training to kids. As an initial step, the training  has been given to the students of class 9 and 10. In the next stage, training will be given to all girls belonging to the primary level”, he said.“President said the initiative of the panchayat is receiving great responses from the women community. A workshop was conducted on Monday to formulate a gender project and  it will be implemented in the coming months,” Snehajan said.Sairu Philip, doctor at the Community Medicine Department of the Alappuzha Medical College, said that strong intervention from the society was needed to tackle the issue.The project is planned to be executed in three stages. Beginning at the school level and later expanding to the households and to entire society.