Women's safety takes centre stage in Tamil Nadu elections

Tirunelveli: A string of cases of violence against women and children may haunt the DMK-Congress combine in this assembly election in Tamil Nadu, with the Opposition accusing the Stalin government of being soft on crime and making it a "lawless" state.

The AIADMK-BJP alliance and some smaller Opposition parties have been alleging that drugs were freely available in the state. They also contend that women's safety has been compromised under the DMK government. The campaign seems to have struck a chord as several people ET spoke to said that they were worried over the issue of sexual assault on children and women. "When we send our daughters to school or college, it is worrying to hear such stories. There has been a rise in such cases under this government," said Devi from Vikramasingapuram in Tirunelveli district.

The DMK government had faced flak after the Anna University rape case, where a 19-year-old student was raped on campus in 2024. To make matters worse, there have been more cases just before the polling, scheduled for Thursday. Last week, a girl was hacked with a sickle by a group of youths in Minjur on the outskirts of Chennai. The attackers were allegedly under the influence of drugs. The Opposition is using the case to argue that drugs were freely available and that women were not even safe in their own homes. "There seems to be no fear of the law anymore. We used to have caste-based violence but never this kind. Sexual assaults are very concerning," said Lachmana from Thiruvenganathapuram in Tirunelveli.


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Meanwhile, in a bid to woo female voters, the DMK government has announced that the pay-out to women under the Kalaignar Women's Rights Scheme would be doubled to ₹2,000 a month if voted back to power. It has already deposited ₹5,000 (₹1,000 each for three months, plus ₹2,000 to address summer hardship). The DMK government has also promised that it would give ₹8,000 worth of coupons to buy white goods. The DMK believes the cash dole would help it assuage anti-incumbency factors.


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DMK cadres in some constituencies have allegedly been distributing coupons worth ₹8,000 and offering gifts. This too seems to have boomeranged on the DMK. Last week a 25-year-old woman allegedly ended her life after she was abused and beaten up by DMK cadres after she questioned why she did not get a gift. The news of her assault and her subsequent suicide has gone viral in the state.