The Hindu        20.12.2011

Kalpetta municipality to turn women-friendly

A people's initiative, under the auspices of the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishath (KSSP) district committee and the Kalpetta municipality, is planning to make the municipality here a women-friendly civic body.

The initiative aims at tackling atrocities on women and children and ensuring their status in society, K. Sachithanandan, project coordinator, said.

Though the social status of women has increased, they are excluded from the development plans of the local administrative bodies, T. Sreevalsan, president of the KSSP unit, said. A development plan for women is possible only after analysing data on them, especially of the floating population, he said.

“We will organise a survey on the floating population on Tuesday by the help of the National Service Scheme volunteers of the government college here,” he said.

District Collector K. Gopalakrishna Bhatt will inaugurate the programme.

Mr. Sreevalsan said the survey would count the number of women who reached the town from different parts of the district for various needs, the approach of the urban population towards them, and the various issues facing them in government institutions and private establishments in the municipal area. The data would help draft a plan and implement the project soon, A.P. Hameed, municipal chairman, told The Hindu .

The project will be implemented with the active cooperation of women non-governmental organisations, college students, the Janamaithri police, and Kudumbasree units.

For the survey, a day's training was provided to the volunteers at the Government Lower Primary school auditorium here recently.