PUNJAB appears to be leading the way in putting concepts of women’s protection into actual practice. In February, its provincial assembly had passed the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act, 2015. In many ways, this is perhaps the most comprehensive legislation on the subject because it also takes into account cultural realities that make women doubly vulnerable in this society and stipulates measures to address them. Then, on Tuesday, the Punjab chief minister directed the province’s top police official to create the post of DIG women protection — to which a woman will be appointed and which will be under the IGP’s direct command — and depute women superintendents at the Violence Against Women Centres in order to implement the aforementioned legislation.

It is encouraging that not only has the Punjab government resisted the pressure from religious parties to roll back or modify the Women’s Protection Act, but has seen fit to take follow-up steps fairly quickly. Many a good law on our statute books has been unable to make any impact because of lack of implementation. The domestic violence legislation in Sindh and Balochistan, passed in 2013 and 2014 respectively, is a case in point. In fact, where setting up implementing mechanisms is concerned, laws pertaining to violence against women or to cultural practices that violate women’s rights are particularly prone to foot-dragging. There is simply not enough enthusiasm within the relevant political circles or the bureaucracy — both of them overwhelmingly male — to change a status quo so skewed in their favour. The VAWCs are the linchpin of the Women’s Protection Act, containing under one roof all the facilities required to deal with cases of gender-based violence from initial reporting all the way up to post-trauma rehabilitation. Appointing a senior woman police officer specifically to head them, and giving her the requisite powers to do so effectively, makes eminent sense. Care must be taken, however, that these centres retain their specialised purpose and do not become an extension of women’s police stations.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016