Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Thursday said an attitudinal shift in parenting, society’s approach to women, a change in the concept of education itself and effective policing are the need of the hour in tackling crimes against women.
Responding to the recent incidents of rape in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Lt Governor said the entire society has to take responsibility for the assault on women in the country. The primary responsibility should be bestowed on parents and teachers, added the former IPS officer.
“This menace is curable without any additional financial resources. We only have to make our social system work together in a collaborative way at all times. Not once in a while as happens now,” Ms. Bedi told The Hindu.
The real problem was the way society educates (or ill educates) boys. The effort is always to the make boys literate and employable so that they could support dependent families, the Lt Governor said. “In fact, we leave them on their own to learn from the larger world of peers and other socially-impacting sources. We set no boundaries for our sons in their upbringings. We only set constraints on our daughters. When a boy is not properly nurtured, he shall always remain vulnerable to deviant behaviour,” Ms Bedi said.
Stressing the need for more sensitisation of the police force too, the former police officer said, “Don’t forget that some of the men are products of the same society which nurtures them before they join the police. Training does not give a sensitive heart but only provides legal skills.”
