Rehabilitation of sex workers: DCW sends notice to WCD dept

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has sent a notice to the Secretary of Women and Child Development (WCD) department, Delhi government on Wednesday on the issue of rehabilitation of women sex workers of GB Road.

The notice by the DCW to WCD comes a day after its Chairperson Swati Maliwal visited and inspected the state of sex workers in the brothels of GB Road along with other senior officials from Delhi Police, North MCD, Delhi Fire Service, Delhi Jal Board and other prominent NGOs working at GB Road. In a notice, DCW chief Swati Maliwal cited the meeting of State Level Coordination Committee on Combating Trafficking held on October 5 where the Chief Secretary had directed the WCD to frame a rehabilitation policy for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Maliwal has sought information from WCD of whether the rehabilitation policy has been framed and submitted to the higher authorities of Delhi government for the approval.

The DCW Chief also asked the Secretary to provide reasons if the policy has not been framed and file a reply by January 4. DCW chief Swati Maliwal had objected after the Secretary WCD, Dilraj Kaur was appointed as Member Secretary by the former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.

In rejecting the appointment of Kaur, Maliwal had said: “The DCW sends a lot of notice to the WCD demanding their accountability from rehabilitation policies to improvement in Nari Niketan kendras. 

The appointment of Dilraj Kaur of WCD will therefore affect the autonomy of the Commission.”