Many leaders pledge for Rape Free India

Hyderabad: As part of the ongoing month-old campaign 'Rape Free India', G Kishan Reddy, Revanth Reddy and 18 others pledged to support 'Rape Free India' initiative in Telangana.

The campaign is collectively run by Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation and Asritha in Hyderabad. Apart from Telangana, top leaders from BJP, INC, AAP, TDP, JDU amongst others have joined hands with the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation to pledge for a 'Rape Free India'.

The ongoing campaign which aims to prioritise safety of children and women in the election agenda has witnessed commitment from over 450 Lok Sabha candidates over a month.

The awareness drive has garnered 450 pledges from leaders across party lines. Top politicians, namely, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law and Justice, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Minister of Women and Child Welfare (Uttar Pradesh), Digvijay Singh, MP and Gen. Secy of AICC, Dilip Pandey, senior leader of AAP, and Sharad Yadav amongst others.

The campaign demands a budgeted national action plan to make a "Rape Free India" and at least make 10% budget allocation for child protection in the Union Budget. It also appeals to party chiefs to suspend any person accused of a sex crime from their party, pending investigation.

Crimes against children in Telangana have shown a growing trend with an increase of 51% in the last three years (2014-16). This could be due to the increase in awareness level and improvement in reporting. In 2016, 2,909 cases of crimes against children were reported under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO).

Of all the registered crimes against children across the country in 2016, about 3% were from Telangana. Telangana stands at 16th position in terms of per cent share of the total incidences of crimes against children registered during 2016 in the country.

The campaign 'Rape Free India' initiated on 6th April in Patna has conducted 14 public dialogues so far in Patna, Raipur, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Trichy, Jhansi, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhopal and Ranchi.

As the campaign picks up pace, political leaders, youth, corporate, women's groups, grassroot ngos, and civil society organisations are joining their campaign with a strong resolve to make a 'New India-Rape Free India,' stated a press release by Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation (KSCF).

KSCF, set up by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a global thought leader for prevention of exploitation and violence against children, works for the creation of a child-friendly world through direct interventions and programmes, research and capacity building, and campaigns for the mobilization of mass support and behaviour change.