PROTECT WOMEN
    Date :08-Apr-2020

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THE telling statement made by UN Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres urging Governments to protect women during the coronavirus lockdown carries a deep-felt message for the entire humanity. “Violence is not confined to the battlefield,” Mr. Guterres said while pointing towards the surge in domestic violence against women during the homestay clauses applied almost all over the world. It is an indictment of a filthy attitude that pervades in the society where women are still subjected to an inferior life. The lockdown has brought to fore various facets of human attitude. The worst is the violence against women, something that the National Commission for Women in India has talked about a few days ago. Since the lockdown was imposed the commission received over 70 complaints of domestic violence which is a multifold increase. Protecting women against oppression has to be among the key response plans for Covid-19, for, economic and social pressures are making the females all the more vulnerable. Happy homes can only serve a happy country.
 
SERIOUS OFFENCE
 
THE incident of a man who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation later spitting on doctors attending him in a Kanpur hospital, should be considered a serious offence. This is not the first time that such behaviour has been noticed. Many persons who attended the Tabighi congregation have indulged in uncouth behaviour, and the administration must take a serious cognisance of such a conduct. A direct registration of a criminal offence may not be appropriate if the persons indulging in such a behaviour are already afflicted by coronavirus. But that also does not mean that a subsequent criminal action stands ruled out. In fact, in the larger interest of establishing precedence of law over anything else, should be a goal of the administration at any time. When the wrongdoers realise that the Government does not take their uncouth conduct lightly, then the society will get a right message. Seen from this angle, the incident of a person spitting on the doctors has to be considered a serious violation of the law.