Women empowered with guns in MP district

Bhopal: Earlier, they were known as a broomstick weilding women in their villages, but now they are recognised as a gun-toting women in dacoity-infested Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, where carrying a gun is considered a status symbol.


“A total of 19 women – nine belonging to `Nirmal Grams’ (clean villages) for their role in ensuring villages to be clean and hygiene under the `Total Sanitation Campaign’ and the rest members of the village defence committees were awarded gun licences in the district as part of the women empowerment,” Suprintendent of Police (SP) Rewa District, Mohammad Shahid Absar told PTI today.


“The state Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan wanted to empower the women in villages and therefore, we decided to award gun licence to these women for their exemplary work in their respective fields,” Absar said.


He said, carrying gun is a status symbol in the district whose several parts bordering Uttar Pradesh are affected with the dacoity menace. These women members of the village defence committees many a times played vital role during raids conducted by the police as they are well aware of the local terrains in their respective areas.


By empowering them with gun licences their confidence and social status has increased manifold, he said, adding at the same time it will also give a right message to the dacoits that they cannot take women for granted any more.


Large number of people apply for gun licence in the region. In Rewa district alone over 14,000 applications are pending with the administration, but they are not as lucky as their fair sex counterparts are, an officer said.


Published by Sify News

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