‘Set Up Internal Panels In Departments Having Over 10 Women Staff’

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) Rekha Rahatkar has directed the collectors of Indore division for a special action plan to reduce the gap in the child sex ratio. Special efforts should be made for the education of girls and for women’s empowerment, she said, emphasizing that it should also be ensured that all girls were admitted to schools.

Rahatkar was speaking at a meeting of collectors and CEOs of the District Panchayat of Indore division held at the Residency on Friday.

She directed the divisional commissioner and all collectors to make it mandatory to appoint protection officers everywhere to prevent exploitation of women and ensure their safety.

“This order is also from the Supreme Court. This work should be completed within the next two months,” she said. A large number of women worked in the unorganized sector but to ensure their safety, internal committees should be formed at the local level, she said.

“Ensure the formation of an internal committee at an institution employing 10 or more women. Awareness programmes should be run from the block level to the district level and this should be specifically promoted. The collector and commissioner should personally monitor this,” she said.

Rahatkar said that marital discord led to early divorce. Due to this, divorce cases were increasing in society. To prevent this, pre-marital communication centres should be established with counselling facilities. Such centres should be established at the tehsil level.

The NCW chairperson said that a pre-marital communication centre was currently operating in Sambhaji Nagar, Nagpur. This centre had achieved good results. “Our goal is to establish 100 pre-marital communication centres across the country,” she said.

The district collectors shared efforts made towards women’s empowerment, education and livelihood.

NCW chairperson holds Jansunwai

NCW chairperson Rekha Rahatkar held a Jansunwai here on Friday. On this occasion, she said that the Commission’s primary objective was to ensure timely and effective resolution of women’s complaints. With this goal in mind, the Commission recently launched the ‘National Commission for Women at Your Doorstep’ initiative, under which the Commission was reaching out to women who were unable to approach it with their complaints.

She said that the Commission received 164 complaints from the city, many of which were resolved before the Commission arrived. In Friday’s Jansunwai, 40 complaints were selected for in-person hearings. These complaints were primarily about sexual harassment, rape and attempted rape, dowry harassment, cybercrime and other issues. Most of the cases were resolved, with deadlines set for the remaining. She also said that 30 walk-in complaints were received during the Jansunwai. She directed police officers to expedite the hearing of pending cases and provide relief to victimized women.