THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P Satheedevi took charge as Kerala Women's Commission's chairperson on Friday and said committees at the local self government bodies would be strengthened to check atrocities against women.
She said that the Commission, along with the Women and Child Development Department and the Culture Department, has been organising various campaigns against dowry harassment.

"Instead of considering the girl child as someone to be 'married off', parents should give her quality education and equip her to be independent," Satheedevi told reporters.

The Chairperson lauded the suggestion of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan that students should file an affidavit against dowry.

Satheedevi, a former Lok Sabha MP, is also the state secretary of the CPI(M)'s women wing, All India Democratic Women's Association.

She succeeded M C Josephine as the new chief of the Commission. The post had remained vacant for the last three months since Josephine resigned on June 25.

Josephine, a central committee member of the ruling CPI(M), had to quit the post after a controversy erupted in Kerala over her speaking harshly to a woman complainant of domestic violence during a live television programme on a Malayalam channel, causing embarrassment to the Marxist party.