The Supreme Court on Monday described the attack on Odisha teen girl using the word “shame”, saying that concrete steps are needed to empower the school girls, home makers, children in rural areas.
Close on the heels of the death of a 20-year-old college girl’s in Odisha’s Balasore district following self-immolation attempt over her sexual harassment by a professor, a 15-year-old girl in Puri district was allegedly set on fire by three unidentified youths while she was on her way to a friend’s house on Saturday morning.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi on Monday said, “We need suggestions from everyone on what concrete steps can be taken to empower the school girls, home makers, children in rural areas, who are the most vulnerable and the voiceless people. Our directions should have some impact and visible imprint.”
‘We are in shame’
“We are in shame and it is unfortunate that these incidents are still taking place. This is not adversarial litigation. We need suggestions from the centre and all the parties,” PTI news agency quoted the bench.
Some short-term and long-term directions need to be issued for immediate and for future and so that women living in taluka level could be made aware and empowered, the bench said.
Senior advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, appearing for the petitioner Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, said a couple of days ago, the minor was burnt and similar incidents took place in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
“How long will this go on? This court needs to pass some directions for the safety of women,” Pawani said.
Justice Kant said the registry has not put the affidavit of the Centre on record and posted the matter next week.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said the Centre gave details of steps and said CCTV cameras along with face scan systems would be installed in public places to identify sexual offenders and timely actions.
She said one-stop centres were now functioning in every district which would be helpful for the women in distress.
The bench, however, said while one-stop centre was good, it needed to go to the taluka level.
In December last year, the Supreme Court agreed to examine a plea seeking directions to frame pan-India guidelines for a safe environment for women, children and transpersons.
The PIL said sexual crimes against women, girls and infants, reported across the country continued in different states.