Guwahati: Members of the Students Federation of India (SFI) today hit the streets in various parts of the state capital city here demanding fast track courts to try cases of rape and atrocities on women.
The SFI launched the agitation in the wake of October 1 gang rape of a 21-year-old primary school teacher under Dalgaon police station area in Darrang district of Assam.
The incident has already triggered mass protest in the State even after the arrests of the culprits involved in the crime.
The secretary of the Assam unit of the SFI, Nitarth, said: “Women are not safe in Assam, and also in Guwahati. So, we organised this protest and are sending a memorandum to the government to set up a fast track court to settle such cases quickly.”
The incident of rape of the young school teacher who was appointed after clearing Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET), has forced the State government to review the appointment and posting policy in respect of women teachers considering their security while having to work in far flung places away from their home.
While State Education Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that efforts were on to ensure that woman teachers were posted in schools located within five kilometer radius of their place of residence, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the chief secretary Jitesh Khosla to constitute a three-member panel to formulate a transfer and posting policy for women school teachers.
The committee would be headed by adviser to the chief minister and former chief secretary P P Verma.
The two other members of the committee included Commissioner and Secretary of Elementary Education Hemanta Narzary and Deputy Director of Elementary Education Asomi Gogoi. The committee is expected to submit its recommendation within a month.
It may be mentioned that most of the teachers who were appointed in the state during last couple of years after clearing the TET, were posted in remote area.
For women teachers it has become a problem to travelling long distance every day to work in remote are schools.
