New Delhi: In wake of Justice Verma's criticism of Delhi Police in handling the December 16 gangrape incident, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath on Wednesday acknowledged there were shortcomings in functioning of the police but refused to term their action as complete failure. "I can't say it is a complete police failure. It was an accident," Tirath said.
"I haven't seen such a case before," she added on the sidelines of a felicitation ceremony held Delhi to honour children who won bravery awards in 2013. The minister, however, added she completely supported the public opinion and reiterated that stringent laws need to be put in place to deal with such crimes.
When asked that there was a lack of consensus on the framing of rape laws, the minister said "it was not about one ministry" and other stakeholders were also involved in the decision. On the lack of implementation of laws, Tirath said community participation was important in this regard.
She informed that after SABLA (Rajiv Gandhi Empowerment of Adolescent Girls) her ministry was coming up with a SAKSHAM scheme for the boys. Addressing children in the audience, she stressed on the need to "sensitise children" on issues like increasing crime against women.
Pointing out that there has been increasing cases of sexual assault and declining child sex ratio in the country, Tirath said, "we need to see why such acts were taking place in our society." She said the best and effective medium to reach out to the masses and make them aware about these issues was through children.
She said she was looking forward to participate in a dialogue with young boys and girls together in a safe environment to know about their views on the recent happenings and how to correct them.
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