NCW is known to harass women, I mean not the young women of reproductive age but everyone else who is related to a man as sister, mother etc. But this allegation of harassment has come not from those women but from ex-NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh.
New Delhi, February 26, 2010
Women are being harassed by the National Commission of Women itself, former member Nirmala Venkatesh alleged on Thursday. She held chairperson Girija Vyas responsible.
Pointing to the recent resignation of Neeva Konwar from the commission, Venkatesh said she too was a victim.
Venkatesh alleged that Vyas and member secretary S. Chatterjee "conspired and suppressed" inquiry reports submitted by her and Konwar and then blamed them for dereliction of duty and not filing reports in time.
"The commission should be renamed the National Commission of Women for Harassment," Venkatesh said. She appealed to the Prime Minister to take a serious note of the issue and demanded the resignation of Vyas.
Konwar, wife of Bihar governor Devanand Konwar, had resigned from the commission on February 12. She had alleged that some NCW officials conspired against her and did not table a report submitted by her.
Vyas rubbished the allegations.
" I work up to 18 hours a day," she said adding that it was well known there was an ongoing dispute between Venkatesh and Renuka Chowdhury. Venkatesh had been sacked following last year's Mangalore pub incident which she was inquiring into. She was accused of leaking the report to the media before submitting it to the commission.
Venkatesh refuted the charge alleging that Chatterjee and Vyas had deliberately concealed her report even as the then women and child development minister Chowdhury repeatedly demanded to see it.
Even if Venkatesh's claims are a bit too late, the state of affairs at the commission is hardly commendable.