Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP)
Kundapur, Aug 4: "Incidents of rape and violence against women and children have increased and there is an atmosphere of fear in the society. It is difficult for children to go to school in peace. There is no humanity left in society. It is not possible to ignore such incidents. Rallies and protests are taken up to create awareness among people and these are warning bells to those who indulge in such acts," said Fr Alphonse D'Lima, parish priest of Gangolli church.
He was speaking after inaugurating a protest rally held in Gangolli Church premises on Saturday, August 2 by Catholic women's association, Stree Shakti self-help group and other like-minded associations in Gangolli gram panchayat limits to decry sexual harassment and violence against women and children and urge suitable measures to ensure their safety.
B Raghavendra Pai, former member of gram panchayat and journalist spoke on the occasion.
Anganwadi worker Philomena stressed on the need to provide protection to children. Ramakrishna, assistant sub-iInspector of Gangolli police station, gram panchayat members Raja Kharvi, Jayanti Kharvi, Catholic women's association president Gladys D'Souza, Mary Lucy, Shaila Almeida, Reginald Pinto, members of Church executive committee, several self-help groups and others were present.
Preethi Crasta, president of Church executive committee compered the programme. The protest rally was held from church road via Doddahitlu and main road till the post office and ended at the office of gram panchayat.
An memorandum was submitted to the government through Gangolli gram panchayat after the procession. Gram panchayat president Reshma Kharvi, vice-pesident Maheshraj Poojary and PDO T Seetha received the memorandum.