In marathon outreach, NCW plans week-long public hearings covering 500 districts

NEW DELHI: Aiming to reach women in distress, the National Commission for Women in coordination with state women’s commissions will hold marathon ‘Mahila Jan Sunwais’ (public hearings) across the country starting from Monday to cover 500 districts spread out in 25 states and Union Territories till March 14.

Through this nationwide effort, the commission aims to address and resolve nearly 15,000 complaints registered from those areas with the NCW and the state commissions, including both walk-in grievances and registered cases, thereby providing women with timely support and strengthening institutional response mechanisms.

This campaign is an extension of the National Commission’s flagship outreach programme - "NCW Aapke Dwar" wherein a 100 public hearings were held across states last year to ensure speedy resolution of complaints registered with the NCW from those areas and also took-up fresh cases on the spot.

Making the announcement ahead of International Women’s Day, observed every year on March 8, NCW chief Vijaya Rahatkar said that she will will lead the 'jansunwais' in five states that are currently without a state commission chairperson. These include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Telangana.

Rahatkar will set off the campaign by steering a hearing in Jaipur on March 9. She will next visit Vadodara on March 10 followed by Bhopal on March 11, Medchal-Malkajgiri on March 12, Deoghar on March 13 and Dumka on March 14.

Rahatkar said that in Delhi too the post of chairperson and members are vacant but the districts from here have not been included in the 500 districts to be covered in this week long drive as NCW is headquartered in the capital itself and a week long public hearing was held last year in Delhi dealing with around 2,000 complaints.

Meanwhile, Rahatkar said that she has already written to the chief secretaries of all five states to constitute the state commissions at the earliest.

The NCW chief highlighted that based on the experience gathered over the 100 public hearings held over last year it has come through that a significantly large number of cases are family disputes including domestic violence.

That many women continue to suffer in the confines of their homes is well known and revealed in data trends over the years. Of all the complaints received by the commission’s complaint cell last year domestic violence and dowry harassment alone accounted for over 39% (10,846) of the 27,000 plus complaints registered under various categories of crime against women from across the country till Dec 31.

Rahatkar shared that the 500 districts have been selected based on factors such as the number of complaints received and the need to reach remote and hilly areas.

From jan sunwais in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh to Manipur taking the initiative to hold five public hearings reflecting strong engagement by the State Women Commission despite challenging circumstances in the state - the next week will see NCW take the redressal system to the grassroots across regions covering states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Nagaland.
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