Prostitution worst form of slavery: DCW chief Swati Maliwal

NEW DELHI: DCW chief Swati Maliwal today said prostitution was the "worst form of slavery" and legalising the trade would promote trafficking.

She also questioned the experts vouching for legalising the trade and said only poor women would be pushed into it if prostitution was allowed under the law.

"I am not at all in support of legalisation of prostitution. Prostitution I think is the worst form of slavery and it will only promote trafficking. Only poor women would be pushed into it if it gets legalised. I want to ask the experts who vouch for its legalisation, will you allow your daughters, sister or wives to take this up," she said.

Maliwal said her priority areas would be to ensure the implementation of the recently passed ordinance which prescribes death penalty to rapists of children within six months, push the authorities for setting up fast track courts, close down the red-light area of GB Road and eliminate drug mafias from the city.

She said she was also in touch with the education department to make the curriculum more gender sensitive.

According to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), it has dealt with 52,473 complaints in the last three years under Maliwal's tenure, registering an increase of over 700 per cent compared with the work done by the commission under the previous chairperson in eight years.

The Commission said its chairperson personally perused over 2,000 cases in three years, whereas the previous head had taken up only one case in over eight years.

Maliwal made over 500 visits to various shelter homes, communities, rape survivors and other women and girls in distress, and submitted over 175 policy recommendations to the government, whereas the previous dispensation had submitted a single recommendation in eight years, the women rights body said.

The DCW assisted sexual assault survivors in 35,606 hearings in court in the past three years through its Rape Crisis Cell, and 11,670 sexual assault survivors were counselled by the Crisis Intervention Centre counsellors.

It stated that 6,952 FIRs of sexual assault and sexual harassment were registered after intervention of the Commission in the past three years, and victim compensation in over 559 cases was released to survivors, the body said.

In addition to the above, 10,619 complaints were registered with the Mahila Panchayat centres of the Commission in various communities in the past two years and 15,843 community meetings were organised by the Mahila Panchyats in two years, the Commission added.