Kerala will set up a public registry of sex offenders, a first in the country, governor P. Sathasivam said on Thursday.

The move comes after an actress was abducted on her way to work by a gang of seven and was molested in her car, causing public outrage on the safety and security of women in the state.

While speaking on the inaugural day of the budget session, the governor listed a slew of other measures to tackle crime against women in the state.

It includes setting up a separate department to exclusively look at women’s issues, setting up a relief fund for victims of sex crimes, increasing the representation of women in police force by up to 15% and ensuring each panchayat has a lady police officer.

The governor’s inaugural address comes at a time when the ruling Left Front government has been facing the heat following the molestation of the actress.

The main accused was on the run till Thursday, and the opposition parties and the social media have been up in arms alleging lawlessness in the state.

The incident came as a shock to the people where the state government often parrot welfare statistics as an indicator of quality of life of women in Kerala.

For instance, the state has the highest women to men sex ratio, ranks first in women’s education and has the least infant mortality rate—some of the most basic indicators of the quality of life in a country. However, experts have been arguing, as it was seen after the horrific rape and murder of a Dalit woman called Jisha last year, that these statistics often underplay the gender inequality, caste discrimination and serious breakdown of women’s safety in the state.

The governor has also announced that the state will soon come out with a comprehensive law to ensure efficiency in public service, protecting citizens’ rights and to guarantee transparency and accountability.

The state is also is in the process of boosting its potential in export business, under the brand “Make in Kerala”, for which a fresh export policy will be out soon, he said.

In a first, the governor also criticized the demonetisation exercise undertaken by the Union government. The move has had a negative impact on the lives of ordinary people across the country.

In Kerala, he added, it had a massive impact on the cooperative sector, a crucial agent in rural banking, which was practically defunct, as they were not being allowed to exchange scrapped Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes following demonetisation.

 

source: Live Mint