Mayor suggests steps to make Chandigarh women-friendly

Chatrath suggested revamping of women desks at all police stations,creating an ‘all women police station’ in Chandigarh,greater involvement of senior citizens in the community policing scheme and increasing the visibility of the Women’s Cell.

She said a women friendly system will be created in the shelter home at Sector 26 for womenfolk in distress and innovative schemes will be launched for the cause of the girl child along with awareness programmes.

Ameer Sultana and Manvinder Kaur from the Department and Centre for Women Studies,Panjab University,highlighted that growing instances of drug abuse and alcoholism was a major cause of domestic violence.

Doon said the Chandigarh Police already has a women helpline 1091,where any kind of problem can be reported. He said beat boxes will be redesigned to gain more visibility. Parents were also asked to keep a check on their children so that they do not indulge in criminal activities. It was also decided that the city will be divided into three zones and meetings with residents will be called.

Samwartak Singh said the Social Welfare department has started a women empowerment centre at Sector 19 to make them self-reliant. He said various courses and loans will be provided under the newly initiated scheme ‘Learn and Earn’ for people from categories such as BPL,SC,BC,OBC and widows.

Others who were present during the meeting included Federation of Sectors

Welfare Association Chandigarh (FOSWAC) chairman P C Sanghi,lawyer Navkiran Singh and Parmod Sharma,co-ordinator of NGO Yuvsatta.