Shillong, Oct 16: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma held a stakeholders’ meeting with headmen, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, NGOs and community leaders to discuss, collaborate and find tangible solutions to the issues surrounding crime against children and women.
The stakeholders presented the issues in their communities and also gave suggestions to the issues.
“We spoke at large about awareness programs, counselling and training for counsellors, installation of CCTVs and street lights, including the repair of non-functional ones, vigilance in drug prone zones, de-addiction and detoxifying centers among others. We will create a movement, involving all stakeholders to address the problems grappling the community like drug abuse and drug peddling, teenage pregnancies, school drop outs, stigmatisation of victims of crimes and abuse, sensationalism of crimes. We will come up with pilot programs to teach awareness to children about safe and unsafe touch, empowering them to speak up and stay safe. Such programs are aimed to create a society that does not shy away from reporting and addressing such issues”, the chief minister said..
As the government’s efforts are ongoing to tackle the issues, a unified approach is the need of the hour to ensure each and everyone of us take action to ensure a safe and secure environment for children, women and society at large.
