Is your hostel safe to inhabit? On June 11, 2014 two minor girls staying in a private hostel in Pollachi were abducted and brutally gang raped. At the wake of this shocking incident, the Tamil Nadu government has formulated new guidelines for running hostels for girl students, teenage girls and working women across the state. The bitter truth is that, the government and the society in general wakes up to bring in new laws or amendments or rules only after the outpour of anger and grief following the incident, especially in cases of violence against women. Here are a few of the 23 new guidelines laid down by the government for running private hostels: - District administrations would prepare a list of retired police officials, ex-servicemen and Home Guards to help hostel managements to hire them as security guards. - The warden can be appointed only after checking his or her history of professions and the person produced a conduct certificate from local police. In addition, the particular person’s mental and physical health needed to have been certified by government hospitals. - All these hostels will be brought under the supervision of Collectors in all districts, with each one of them maintaining a separate register with details of these hostels. The respective district police would ensure these hostels are visited at least once a month. - The district administration will organise awareness camps, upload details of these hostels with contact number of security men to these hostels, and also create awareness of ‘Child Helpline 1098. - All homes and hostels for girl students, teenage girls and working women run by government, non-governmental organisations, associations, trusts, religious institutions, schools, colleges, training institutes, factories and companies run by organisations and individuals, would immediately be brought under the purview of these guidelines - Boys and girls should be accommodated in different rooms, in case there were no separate buildings for them. - In case the hostels had multiple entries, all of them should be manned by security guards. At any point of time, security guards should be present in the hostel. These guards should remain in rooms given to them near the entry and not allowed inside the hostel with girls. - All inmates in the hostel should be counted every night and their entry and exit from the hostel should be recorded in a register. The inmates should be sent only with parents or with persons the parents had permitted. - Hostel wardens and security guards should not allow outsiders and visitors to enter the hostel premises. Both hostel wardens and security guards should be given a photo identity cards and their contact numbers should be displayed prominently in the entry of every hostel. - Parents and guardians should also be given photo identity cards and the same should be produced when they come to visit the inmates of the hostel. - Security guards working in hostels run by non governmental organisations should be paid on par with their counterparts working in government hostels. How have been the after effects of these new guidelines? Lets now check with our women colleagues and friends on the impact of it: Is your hostel safe to inhabit? With all these implementations do you think your hostel will become a safer place to live? Author - Saraswathy,IT employee,Save Tamils Movement. thehindu/news/national/tamil-nadu/tn-fames-new-guidelines-for-running-women-hostels/article6152100.ece
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 05:10:06 +0000
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