The Kerala government on Saturday said that it planned to set up separate courts to try crimes against women, to enable them get speedier justice. "The state government will consider setting up separate courts to try crimes against women, which will also help in delivering speedy justice. We will also consider ward-level awareness schemes to counter domestic violence cases against women. When an issue crops up, the ward-level mechanism can swiftly interfere. The local self-government bodies play a major role in this regard," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
He was speaking at an online function to mark the inauguration of various projects under the Home department including new police stations constructed in the state.
Recently, the state has seen a rise in news reports with regard to crimes against women, including domestic violence. Reports of three young married women allegedly dying by suicide came out in the past few days. Dowry harassment has allegedly led to the deaths of 22-year-old Vismaya, 24-year-old Archana and 19-year-old Suchithra. The tragedy has reinitiated a discussion on the illegal practice of dowry.
In the online function, CM Pinarayi inaugurated newly constructed buildings for police stations at Ramankary, Edathua in Alappuzha district, Thrithala in Palakkad district and Chokli in Kannur district.
"The Ramankary and Edathua police stations, which were completely destroyed in the 2018 floods, were reconstructed seven feet above ground level in order to brave the floods," a state government release said.
The police stations have a reading room, child-friendly area, feeding room and a room for transgender people, among others.
The CM also inaugurated the Kannur Rural district police office, upper subordinate quarters in Kozhikode, new barracks at Agali in Palakkad district, district-level training centres at Kollam and Thrissur and the Malabar special police museum, conserving rare police documents and district level forensic labs, at Ernakulam and Malappuram.