Women need to be empowered more so that crimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act can be dealt with and, more preferably, eliminated from society, East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh said today on the eve of International Women’s Day.
“The number of teenage pregnancies across Meghalaya is very alarming and POCSO Acts needs to be talked about by women’s organisations so that everyone knows about this law and its consequences,” Lyngdoh told Highland Post.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world’.
“As the Chairperson of the Meghalaya Assembly standing committee for the empowerment of women, we are getting reports of the number of teenage pregnancies across the State with no action being taken. In the backdrop of POCSO, young girls, men and boys all have to be made aware of the ramifications of POCSO in order to create a deterrent to the increase of such pregnancies in Meghalaya,” she added.
Even though a girl legally becomes a woman at the age of 18, the Congress legislator opined that even 18-year-olds need to enjoy their teenage years and should not be in a hurry to get into a marital relationship.
Stating that women police officers are still very few in number, Lyngdoh said that a special recruitment drive of women sub-inspectors is needed so that there is a consistent presence of an officer who will take up these cases and also complete the cases during their posting at a particular location and not be transferred before submitting the investigation report the investigation.
She also opined that even though the government has empowered women in the village employment councils (VECs) there is a need to create awareness and conduct leadership camps for these women.
Meanwhile, on healthcare, the MLA said that women found it very hard to access health facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic and were put through great trauma as a result.
“A pregnant woman who goes for a check-up has to go through a complicated procedure as most hospitals don’t have adequate facilities, such as Covid-19 maternity wards and operating theatres, and there was a huge increase in infant mortality and maternal mortality,” Lyngdoh stated.
Women have been hit in other ways by the pandemic, such as those who are farmers seeing their incomes evaporate when severe restrictions were imposed during the early days on where they could sell their goods.
“When the United Nations brings out international themes it indicates that essential studies have been undertaken to come up with these themes and governments are expected to step up and intervene. However, most of the social security schemes in Meghalaya are pending in large amounts, be it in the category of old aged women, disabled women and others,” Lyngdoh said.
She further stated that women have to stand together and stay focus and strong and address challenges faced by them collectively.
