Thiruvananthapuram, October 07: Women feel unsafe in Kerala capital and face maximum harassment while using public transport, according to Kerala State Economic Review (2008).
According to the report, atrocities against women have increased in Kerala by a whopping 338.40 per cent in the 15-year period starting 1992.
What is more startling is that the number of rape and molestation cases have increased steadily and a four-fold increase has been noticed between 1990 and 2005 in the Thiruvananthapuram city.
As per the records of national Crime Records Bureau, the total rate of crimes in Kerala in 2007 was higher than that of the national average.
”These were the findings of a survey on ‘safety of women in public spaces of Thiruvananthapuram city,’ conducted among 800 women by the Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre here,” Project Coordinator G Rejitha told UNI today.
”The survey was conducted before and after dark. Women’s access to and visibility in public is compounded by several factors like time, place and purpose,” she clarified.
”Conscious use of time and space does categorise them as decent and respectable women. Thus, many spaces that women are able to access during the day become inaccessible or more difficult to use at night,” she said.
–UNI