By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The chairpersons of the state women commissions of the eight Northeastern states on Friday decided to send a proposal to the Union Government for the formation of a ‘task force’ to oversee that recommendations on women-related issues discussed at various intervals bear good fruits.
This decision was unanimously taken at a regional conference on ‘Empowerment of women-an instrument for poverty alleviation’ organised by the National Commission for Women, New Delhi in collaboration with the Meghalaya State Commission for Women and the State Resource Centre for Women, Social Welfare department here on Friday.
Besides the formation of a task force, they have also decided to ask the government to empower the National Commission and states commission with more judicial power so as to handle and take care of various women issues which are on the rise.
“At present, we are vested with civil power and with time, there is a need to be vested with more judicial powers to ensure that women’s issues are handled more efficiently,” Chairperson of Meghalaya State Women Commission Roshan Warjri said here while summing up the whole conference.
The leaders of the eight state women commissions also stressed on the need to form an e-group with an aim to make communication better and much easier.
The resource persons from the law, police, health and education department including social organizations who spoke on various topics highlighted the need to translate the acts and laws legislated into regional languages, making tourism an alternative for promoting sustainable activity of women while highlighting the drawbacks in the process of investigating a rape case which involved delay in charge sheeting and prosecuting the accused.
Earlier, during the inaugural session, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said that independent women are not only capable of contributing towards economic stability of their own families but can also provide much needed contribution in the socio-economic transformation in a multi-dimensional way.
He also pointed out that if people are financially literate and productive, then the per capita increases which in turn increases the GDP of the State.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, highlighted the issue of trafficking of women in some parts of the country including the North East, stating that, “Inspite of our best efforts, the problems is still continuing. Hence, the NCW along with some NGOs need to work together to overcome this problem by holding street plays in every corner of metropolitan cities and rural areas of the country.”
The conference was attended by Social Welfare Minister JA Lyngdoh, Director of Social Welfare HM Shangpliang, NCW member W Syiem, Secretary of Social Welfare department T Dkhar and Mission Director of State Resource Centre for Women L Jyrwa, besides government officials, students and others.