Sensitized youth can ensure a safe society for women: Expert

Bhubaneswar: Youth can play a vital role in bringing down the rate of crime against women in our society. At a time when the society is facing many criminal elements due to overuse of technologies, youth, with right orientation and sensitization, can lessen the burden.

Speaking on the occasion of the Final Youth Connect Programme at KIIT University here today, Additional DG Crime Records Bureau Sudhanshu Sarangi talked about an alert and sensitive youth force for greater safety for women and adolescent girls in our society.

The Youth Connect Programme is a part of the Socially Smart initiative of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited and UNFPA.

Taking the process forward of working in collaboration with educational institutions across the city, the Youth Connect Programme targets to reach nearly 90 schools and colleges during the year 2018.

In 2017 alone, 77 colleges were covered wherein the colleges organised programs to create awareness on issues of safety and security and healthy lifestyle. In 2018 the programs are being organised on the issue of gender-based violence.

The colleges are organising various programs around the theme to create a better understanding of the issues amongst students through competitions including slogan writing, debate and extempore and ‘nukkad natak’.

Institutes like Lord Jagannath School of Nursing, Utkal University, KIIT University, SoA University, Government ITI and University of Culture etc have already organised various programs under the initiative.

BK College of Art and Craft plans to paint the walls of the slum located near to their institute with messages to create awareness of various forms of violence faced by girls/women.

The representative from State Women Commission, who has been closely associated with these programmes, said that it was a good strategy of reaching out to young mass to create awareness on gender-based violence, legal provisions and safety mechanisms.

Police officials, lawyers, Women Commission members are usually the resource persons of the programme, who try to inform students the various legal provisions of the country to safeguard the rights and privileges of women/girls.

Youth Connect Program also has a Facebook page ‘youth4smartcity’ wherein all programme related information are available. The programme this year intends to reach out to selective schools of Bhubaneswar to help address the growing issues of child abuse as well.

This project also has a component to work with young boys and girls from slums of Bhubaneswar and is currently working in 24 slums under Bhubaneswar Town Centre District area (Smart District).