The Hindu Business Line : Let's be fair to ourselves

The National Commission for Women (NCW) was set up as a statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990, to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women; recommend remedial legislative measures; facilitate redress of grievances; and advise the government on all policy matters affecting women.

Dr Girija Vyas is the NCW's current chairperson. Born in Udaipur, she studied at the Sukhadia University in her hometown, and went to the US for her post-doctoral research. She later became a member of the Rajasthan State Legislative Assembly, where she held portfolios of Tourism, PWD, Public Relations, Education etc, and thereafter the Deputy Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

How does she view her latest assignment? "My role is multi-dimensional," she says. Her role includes reviewing the NCW's work and sending reports to the government. Nearly 5,000 complaints await her attention. Each day her office receives at least 50-60 complaints from all over the country. She finds the pace of work at the NCW very slow, and wants to speed up things. She is particularly concerned about the plight of millions of rural women who are unaware of their rights, and also the existence of the institution she now heads. Dr Vyas wants to change all this.

She also feels strongly about sexual harassment of women at the workplace. "I would like to see non-governmental organisations and the media getting proactively involved to ensure that women facing sexual harassment at the workplace or subjected to domestic violence get a fair hearing. They should be provided legal aid." The culprits must be given exemplary punishment so that "no man can ever dare to perpetrate any dastardly act against a woman," she says.

To this effect, the NCW can create awareness, provide education and legal protection. "We provide lawyers, but women must be aware of what we can do for them. Only then can they get all the benefits. In every Ministry, there should be women dealing with problems concerning women."

On the alarming increase in the incidence of domestic violence and the NCW's plans to deal with it, Dr Vyas says that she expects the Domestic Violence Bill to be introduced in the next session of Parliament. Many Indian families do not want girl children and in some homes daughters are even raped by their own fathers or close relatives. The NCW registers such cases and looks for ways to help the victims, she says.

Concerned about reaching adequate healthcare to women, Dr Vyas exhorts women to come forward and lodge complaints against husbands and in-laws who harass them for dowry. Physical harassment of women will stop only when they raise their voice against such atrocities at home. Educated women should come forward to make their less fortunate sisters in cities and villages aware of their rights, she adds.

She favours a quota for women in legislatures, and wants to see the bill introduced soon. She says many male politicians are worried that quotas for women will leave them with fewer seats to contest. Therefore, they are reluctant to back the bill whenever it is introduced in Parliament. She believes quotas will empower women, and help them fight more effectively for their rights.

Positive about the future for women in India, she says, "The most important thing is that India is a democracy, and women have been worshipped here. There have been women who have fought for India, like Rani Laxmi Bai, Jijabai, Kamla Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, and Indira Gandhi."

Picture by V.V. Krishnan

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