ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) has expressed concern over the Miss Arunachal event, which has come under scrutiny for issues affecting the safety, dignity, and fair treatment of participants and support staff.
A team of APWWS on Monday called on Youth Affairs director Ramesh Linggi regarding the issue and sought detailed information about the organization and management of the event.
Linggi informed the team that the State Government under the Chief Minister’s Talent Hunt initiative, aims to provide platforms for youth to showcase their talents. In 2019, the Miss Arunachal event was officially recognized as a state calendar event, with an initial allocation of Rs forty lakh, which was later enhanced to Rs 80 lakh at the request of the organizers.
The director further confirmed that Rs ten lakh was disbursed in October 2023 to the Arunachal Guild for Cultural Integration, which was meant for disbursement to former Miss Arunachal Tengam Celine Koyu and others.
The money was not disbursed. Koyu has come forward to say that the incentive was not paid to her. The APWWS team also sought clarification on the guidelines for incentive disbursement.
Linggi, however, clarified that no NOC is required for the disbursement of incentives, and these funds are not connected to the grant-in-aid for the annual Miss Arunachal event. He added that his department had received a letter from the event organizers indicating that any incentive should be released through the apex organization.
The director added that while a recommendation is needed to authenticate the claims, an NOC is not compulsory. The women’s body also raised concern about the absence of a clause in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to protect participants from harassment or exploitation, to which the director assured that such a clause would be included in future MOUs.
The team also expressed concern for participants who independently represent the state in reputable and recognized national events and emphasized that making a recommendation from a particular organization compulsory for releasing incentives could lead to manipulation and harassment, for which the department should establish clear guidelines.
The team also raised concern regarding the non-constitution of internal complaint committees as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013, to prevent any kind of sexual exploitation.
They suggested that a lady nodal officer from the department should be appointed as the chairperson of such internal committees for such women related state events.
The APWWS has called for immediate action from the directorate of youth affairs in the state to address the issues, including, urgent release of incentives and payments to Tengam Celine Koyu and Tana Punya, former Femina Miss India participants.
ALSO READ: Mizoram: Three Women Freed After 20 Months of Being Trapped in Syria
ALSO WATCH: