- Thursday, February 27, 2025
The chief minister, Bhupesh Baghel, said it apart from making other announcements during an Independence Day event in Raipur, the state’s capital.
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN a major announcement to address the menace of crime against women, Bhupesh Baghel, chief minister of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Tuesday (15) said those accused in cases of rape, molestation and other crimes against women and girls will be barred from government jobs in the state.
Making an address on the occasion of India’s 77th Independence Day at the Police Parade Ground in state capital Raipur, Baghel came up with as many as 15 announcements, including inclusion of the state’s language and tribal dialects as subjects in primary classes and information on artificial intelligence and machine learning in school curriculum, free bus pick-up and drop facilities for government college students and the state ‘Sahitya Akademi Samman’ award for litterateurs.
Chhattisgarh, ruled by the Indian National Congress, will go to elections later this year.
The chief minister, who hoisted the Tricolour and received a guard of honour from the joint parade of various units of security personnel at the venue, said, “It is our top priority to ensure the safety of women, their respect and protect their dignity. We have decided that those accused of molesting girls and women, raping them and other (offences against women) will be banned from government jobs.”
Later talking to reporters, Baghel said the decision to bar the accused in cases of molestation, rape and other crimes against women from government jobs in Chhattisgarh is an important step towards social and women’s security.
Asked about prime minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech decrying nepotism, Baghel said, “Today is the Independence Day. We had not expected the PM to say such things.”
“If he is saying so then all those people in his party from such backgrounds, be it Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Rajnath Singh’s son, Amit Shah’s son, Raman Singh’s son or Baliram Kashyap’s son, should be removed from their posts. They should not be given any responsibility,” he said.
The occasion of August 15 should not be used as a political opportunity, the CM said.
India’s National Crime Records Bureau report in 2021 showed that Chhattisgarh had the third highest rate (incidents per 100,000 population) of rapes with minor girls in the entire country and fourth highest rate of all POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) cases related to girls.
The state also reported high rate of rapes (on adult women) with nearly 1,100 incidents reported in 2021.
In September last year, the government of Chhattisgarh decided to launch a campaign to promote women’s safety called ‘Hamar Beti Hamar Maan’ (our daughter, our honour) – with a focus on creating awareness among school- and college-going girls on safety measures and putting prior emphasis on registration and investigation of crimes against women, The Week reported.
(With PTI inputs)
