WCD Ministry said that in keeping with Section 3 of the NCW Act, 1990, it has nominated Chandramukhi Devi, Soso Shaiza, and Kamlesh Gautam as NCW members for their stipulated three-year term.
THE Ministry of Woman and Child Development (WCD) announced on Friday that it has nominated three members to the National Commission for Women (NCW). This came a week after The Indian Express reported that the apex national body for women has been functioning without a single member, with some of the five posts lying vacant since several years.
In its statement, the WCD Ministry said that in keeping with Section 3 of the NCW Act, 1990, it has nominated Chandramukhi Devi, Soso Shaiza, and Kamlesh Gautam as NCW members for their stipulated three-year term. All three are BJP members.
Chandramukhi Devi is a former Bihar MLA and member of the Bihar state women’s commission from 2011 to 2014 while Soso is the present BJP national council member and also the daughter-in-law of Janata Party leader Yangmaso Shaiza, the first tribal chief minister of Manipur in 1974. Gautam is the BJP’s regional in-charge for Kanpur-Bundhelkhand.
The Indian Express had reported on November 9 that the NCW has been functioning with only chairperson Rekha Sharma after the last of its members Alok Rawat completed his term on October 19. Two of the posts have been vacant since August 2018.
The new appointments now leave two positions vacant. The members continue to be political appointees as a crucial NCW Bill, which recommended that appointments to the NCW should not be political, has been pending with the PMO. The draft Bill, which would have amended the NCW Act 1990 to expand the limited powers of the Commission, was approved by the Arun Jaitley-headed Group of Ministers in April 2015.