According to National
Crime Records Bureau data, the rate of rapes per lakh women for Kolkata
is1.10, while in other metros it is much higher; some examples – for
Delhi it is 19.02, for Raipur it is15.62, while for Mumbai it is 4.59.
The number for Kolkata is even much below the national average for major
cities, which is 6.39.
India
Today Best City Awards 2014 awarded Kolkata the best city award in the
category of crime and safety. The award was given after a rigorous
survey of Indian cities by the India Today Group. The survey studied 30
capitals and metro cities and 20 emerging cities on 12 parameters.
Kolkata
emerged as safest city in the country. While it has been the endeavour
of Kolkata Police to serve its people in the best possible way, the
credit should also go to the people of the city who have made an equal,
if not more, contribution towards making Kolkata achieve this status.
The city upholds a proud tradition of standing up for women in distress
Now,
West Bengal has a woman as the face of the state, one who has also
played a big role in bringing about drastic changes for the safety of
women. Eighty-eight fast-track courts, 45 courts for women and 20 women
police stations have been set up to address women-oriented grievances
only.
The India Today award for Kolkata
One
of the biggest steps for the upliftment of economically backward women
taken in the recent past by the West Bengal government was the
introduction of the Kanyashree Scheme. This not only enabled quality
education for women, but also ensured a fall in rate of marriage of the
girl child.
Celebrating International Women's Day
Workplaces
are decked up, and cards and gifts are distributed to women employees.
Seminars are held to discuss issues on women's safety in offices and other places. A proactive attitude is the norm when it comes to ensuring women's safety-related grievance cells at workplaces. Besides bouquets and other fancy gifts, cans of
pepper sprays (which are a non-lethal yet effective deterrent women can use) are popular gifts amongst the youth nowadays. Social media plays a big role in spreading messages empowering women; Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp are the primary vehicles in this respect.
The social media theme
for this year marking International Women’s Day is #MakeItHappen. Make
sure to leave your messages for others on our Twitter handle
@MaaMatiManushtv with the hashtag #MakeItHappen.
International Women’s Day – Social Media Campaign (
Facebook)