The letter comes just days after a national conference of chairpersons of state women commissions was held in New Delhi, where the NCW was told that most commissions in the states have very limited finances.
Limited finance is weakening the state women’s commissions at a time when cases of violence against women were on the rise across the country, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has told state governments.
In a letter sent last week, the NCW — the apex national-level organisation mandated to protect and promote interests of women — noted there was a “spurt in media reports relating to cases of violence against women throughout the country. (But) it has been noticed that the redressal of the grievances of women is taking a considerable period of time”.
The letter comes just days after a national conference of chairpersons of state women commissions was held in New Delhi, where the NCW was told that most commissions in the states have very limited finances.
The NCW officials have pointed out that even for a large state, such as Madhya Pradesh, which, as per data from the National Crime Records Bureau, is among the states that records the maximum number of cases of crimes against women, has allotted merely Rs 3 crore as annual budget for the state commission for women. Haryana has allocated Rs 60 lakh per annum, Andhra Pradesh allocated Rs 50 lakh, while Nagaland has the least allotment of Rs 80,000 per year.
“(Due to limited resources) the state commissions mandated to look into the diverse issues concerning women find it difficult to take appropriate remedial action,” the NCW letter said.
According to sources, J&K State Commission for Women chairperson, Nayeema Mehjoor, had also informed the NWC that another major handicap was the “lack of any punitive powers, due to which even domestic violence cases, which come up before the commission, languish in the courts for 5 to 12 years”.