The Delhi unit of the Congress on Monday strongly condemned the brutal rape of a four-year-old girl in the city. The party claimed that ever since the Arvind Kejriwal Government came to power, crimes against women have been on the rise in the city.
The Congress demanded that the AAP Government should take effective action to ensure safety and security of women in the city.
Addressing a Press conference on Monday, Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said the sexual assault on the four-year-old girl was an inhuman crime. She said such crimes were not merely a law and order problem but a societal malice and the AAP Government had unfortunately not taken any steps to prevent crimes against women.
Mukherjee said gender sensitisation was an essential step to prevent such crimes. She said though the Delhi Women’s Commission has issued guidelines for the safety and security of women, there was nothing new in that which could give a new perspective to women’s protection.
Mukherjee said when the Nirbhaya case happened in 2012, the entire country had rallied behind the issue and it was then thought that sexual assaults, molestation and other harassment against women would stop, but the Delhi Government has not only failed to check crimes against women, it has even stopped some of the initiatives taken by the previous Congress Government for the protection of women in Delhi. “For example, the Awaaz Uthao Programme, which was started by the Congress Government to involve the civil society to stop crimes against women, has been put on hold while the helpline for women has been lying non-functional as the salaries of the staff have not been paid.”
Mukherjee said if there was a political will, the AAP Government could have taken effective steps to prevent crimes against women, but the Kejriwal Government has not initiated any action. As a result, she said that the safety and security of women had become a serious problem with Delhi earning a notorious epithet of “rape Capital” of the country. She said the only solution to stop sexual assaults and molestation against women was to include every stake holder in the civil society, as it was not merely a law and order problem, and the police cannot be everywhere.