Under Maliwal, DCW dealt with thrice as many cases

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Tuesday released its Annual Report 2015-2016 at the Constitution Club of India which states that a total number of 2.21 lakh calls have been handled by the Commission through the 181 helpline number and 11,696 cases have been handled in one year.

For the first time, the DCW has fully exercised its mandate. The main aim of the commission in doing proper research in all the cases is to understand the quantitative and qualitative aspects of crimes against women. The report states that the total number of calls received per day is around 1,500 – 1,800 with a staff strength of 31 at the 181 women helpline. Earlier, the DCW was a dead organisation but now the working has changed. DCW’s main focus is to serve the poorest of the poor in Delhi.

The guests for the occasion were Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain, and Minister of Water and Tourism Kapil Mishra.

Maneka Gandhi appreciated Maliwal’s work and stressed on the need to create one-stop centres in Delhi. She also spoke about a panic button in phones with GPS facility and the need to fight against child abuse. She stated that the Centre completely supports the work of the DCW Chairperson. She even mentioned that there will be ‘one shop centres’ everywhere across the country which will consist of an advocate, a nurse and a doctor to reach out to people in emergency cases. 

Delhi Water minister Kapil Mishra said that Swati Maliwal’s attempts to change the system and questioning of corrupt practices in the system is appreciable. He said: “She has spent multiple nights in various night shelters and truly wants to understand the problems faced by the common people.” Mishra also gave a message that everyone should learn martial arts for self-defense. 

Swati Maliwal on this occasion raised an important issue that she feels that there are certain forces in Delhi who do not want the Centre and the states to come together on the issue of women safety. This is for the first time that issues are coordinated between the state and the Centre which, according to Maliwal, is the reason behind such daily FIRs. 

The report points out that the number of rape cases dealt by the counsellors of the Crisis Intervention Centre of Commission during this one year was 2,250. Apart from this, 487 cases are personally dealt by Swati Maliwal. 

Interestingly, in the past six months, the DCW was open even on Saturdays to handle the workload which again was much of a ‘concern’ for the ACB which led the anti-corruption body to file an FIR against the DCW chief.

DCW in a year