Four days after a city court awarded capital punishment to three accused in the Kamduni gang rape and murder case, the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) on Wednesday began a 10-day march from the village in North 24 Parganas district to highlight violence against women in the State.
The march will conclude at Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas, which too was on the boil over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a teenager a few weeks ago.
Vijaya Rahatkar, the national president of Mahila Morcha, the BJP’s women’s wing, and Roopa Ganguly, who heads the State unit of the party’s feeder organisation, were present at the rally in Kamduni.
Criticising the Trinamool Congress government over the recent incidents of violence against women, Ms. Rahatkar said that while such crimes should have declined in West Bengal under the government led by a woman, they had in fact, increased.
She also expressed concern over the high number of women trafficking cases reported in the State.
In December last, 16 mass organisations of the Left parties, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), and the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had taken out a cycle march from Kamduni to Kakdwip over the same issue.
“The first leg of the march will conclude at Esplanade in the city on Thursday. Other leaders from the Centre, including Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, will participate in the padyatra,” BJP spokesperson Krishanu Mitra said.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2014, which was released in August 2015, West Bengal stands second to Uttar Pradesh in the number of recorded cases of crimes against women.
While Uttar Pradesh reported 38,467 cases against women, accounting for 11.4 per cent of all crimes committed against women in the country, West Bengal has registered 11.3 per cent of such crimes.
Bengal stands second to U.P. in the number of recorded cases of crimes against women
