New Delhi: Former Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Thursday slammed the Delhi Lt Governor over the issue of termination of contractual employees of the commission questioning how it will function if most of its staff are dismissed.
"The LG (Lt Governor) in his Tughlaqi farman (arbitrary order) has asked for removing all the contractual staff (of DCW). There are 90 staff in DCW out of which only eight are permanent and the rest 82 are contractual workers employed for low wages at three months contracts," AAP Rajya Sabha MP Maliwal said at a press conference here.
She said if all the contractual staff are removed then "how will eight employees run the women helpline, crisis intervention centre, rape crisis cell, Mahila Panchayat? Where will the hundreds of women and girls who come to seek help here go?"
According to officials, the termination has been carried out on the basis of a report submitted by a committee way back in June 2017.
The WCD Department sent a proposal based on the recommendations of the committee to Lt Governor V K Saxena, who approved it, following which the department issued the order, they said.
Maliwal, who served as the DCW chief for nine years, said that as per her information the present team at the commission was "exercising legal option" although the order has not been implemented so far.
She added that the issue of contractual staff was never raised during her tenure as DCW chairperson.
"Is this their politics that rapists will roam free and the commission for women will be shut down. What will LG gain from such a narrow and negative view?" Maliwal questioned.
No immediate reaction was available from the LG office over Maliwal's allegations.
She also claimed that the DCW was the first women's body to raise its voice over issues like the Manipur incident and complaints of female wrestlers against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
"If they are angry with me they can send all the agencies after me and put me in jail,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
She said the DCW should be preserved and provided with funds and staff to work to help the women.
The DCW has done wonderful work in the last few years and "all this was not done alone by Swati Maliwal. It was done by a team that includes acid attack, rape and domestic violence survivors, who are emerging out of their personal pains to help women."
She also posted videos on her official X handle of a few affected DCW staffers, including an acid attack survivor Mohini, who said "Whether my treatment is delayed or not, but I need a profession to earn money so that I can be independent."
Another acid attack survivor Shabnam says in the video that she was attacked in 2011 and her treatment was on in Kashmir. She later came to Delhi for surgery and was provided a job at Mahila Panchayat of the DCW where she was working for the last six years.
Mailwal claimed that during her tenure, the DCW dealt with 1.7 lakh cases while its helpline, 181, attended 40 lakh calls.
The crisis intervention centre provided counselling to over 60,000 sexual assault survivors, the Mahila Panchayat conducted 50,000 awareness programmes and solved two lakh cases, and the rape crisis cell helped sexual assault survivors in two lakh court cases, she said.
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