Guv says Chennai seen as unsafe for women, calls for better safety

Guv says Chennai seen as unsafe for women, calls for better safety

TNN | Jan 30, 2025, 03.59 AM IST

Chennai: Governor R N Ravi said female students, who won gold medals in Tamil Nadu state universities, felt that Chennai was not safe for women, and that steps should be taken to make cities, including tier-2 and tier-3 cities, safer for them.

Addressing the 93rd annual All India Women’s Conference in Chennai on Wednesday, governor said the term ‘women’s empowerment’ sounded condescending and did not resonate with him. He said women’s empowerment was being talked about for ages, since pre-Independence and after Independence.

“We held conferences, made rules and regulations, but they eventually proved to be ineffective and insignificant because we did not address the fundamentals of the issue,” the governor said.

He said as chancellor of state universities, he found that education was not the problem and girl students outnumbered boys even in the gold medal category. But when he interacted with girls, who won gold medals and discussed their aspirations, they told him with tears in their eyes that their parents did not think Chennai was safe for them.

“Although there are more gold medallists among female students, we still don’t find their representation adequate because educated women face major challenges,” the governor said. To bridge this gap, creche and playschool facilities should be institutionalised, and awareness should be created to make men share responsibilities, he said. Even when it came to children with autism or the elderly, it was the women who took care of them. So, women’s organisations should come up with solutions to these problems and create awareness, he said.