‘Crimes against women and children on the rise in TN’

Tuticorin: All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) national vice president U Vasuki expressed concerns over the rise in

crimes

against women and children in Tamil Nadu. She was talking to reporters about the horrific rape of an 11-year-old hearing impaired by 17 men at Aynavaram in Chennai. “There was a similar incident in Tiruvallur and now it has happened in Chennai,” she said at Tuticorin on Tuesday.

She claimed that the national statistics shows that 40,000 girls and women were subjected to rape and sexual abuse across India in 2016. “One girl is raped or sexually abused every 15 minutes. Despite such alarming situation no effort has been taken by the Tamil Nadu chief minister to stop or even reduce such heinous crimes.

“Are people not reporting such crimes to the police out of fear? Or suspect that nothing would happen even if they reported it to the police?” she questioned. She said that the Tamil Nadu government should intervene and instil confidence among the public by taking stringent action against the accused.

Vasuki distributed education assistance to the tune of Rs 10 lakh to 40 families (Rs 25,000 each) who were affected in the police firing in Tuticorin on May 22 and 23. This included six families of those who got killed in the police firing. The remaining 34 were families of those injured in the firing and lathi charge.

The AIDWA leader criticised the ‘so called self-motivated’ villagers who have mushroomed to petition the district legal services authority and the district administration, urging the state government to reopen Sterlite plant. “Such back door efforts to reopen the sealed copper plant have to be stopped. The district administration and police should enable those who lost their jobs due to closure of the plant to get jobs,” she added.