20 Institutional Arrangements for Civic And Human Rights: National Commission for Women

Dr. Amna Mirza

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The National Commission for Women

The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Govt. of India ) to :

  • Review the Constitutional and Legal safeguards for women ;
  • Recommend remedial legislative measures ;
  • Facilitate redressal of grievances and
  • Advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.

In keeping with its mandate, the Commission initiated various steps to improve the status of women and worked for their economic empowerment during the year under report. The Commission completed its visits to all the States/UTs except Lakshdweep and prepared Gender Profiles to assess the status of women and their empowerment. It received a large number of complaints and acted suo-moto in several cases to provide speedy justice. It took up the issue of child marriage, sponsored legal awareness programmes, Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats and reviewed laws such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, PNDT Act 1994, Indian Penal Code 1860 and the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 to make them more stringent and effective. It organized workshops/consultations, constituted expert committees on economic empowerment of women, conducted workshops/seminars for gender awareness and took up publicity campaign against female foeticide, violence against women, etc. in order to generate awareness in the society against these social evils.

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMISSION

SECTION 3

National Commission for Women Act, 1990
(Act No. 20 of 1990 of Govt. of India)

1. The Central Government shall constitute a body to be known as the National Commission for Women to exercise the powers conferred on and to perform the functions assigned to, it under this Act.

2. The Commission shall consist of :-

(a) A Chairperson, committed to the cause of women, to be nominated by the Central Government.

(b) five Members to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of ability, integrity and standing who have had experience in law or legislation, trade unionism, management of an industry potential of women, women’s voluntary organisations ( including women activist ), administration, economic development, health, education or social welfare;

Provided that at least one Member each shall be from amongst persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively;

(c) a Member-Secretary to be nominated by the Central Government who shall be :-

i. an expert in the field of management, organisational structure or sociological movement, or

ii. an officer who is a member of a civil service of the Union or of an all-India service or holds a civil post under the Union with appropriate experience.

 

THE MANDATE OF THE COMMISSION

SECTION 10

 

National Commission for Women Act, 1990

(Act No. 20 of 1990 of Govt. of India)

1. The commission shall perform all or any of the following functions, namely :-

a. Investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution and other laws;

b. present to the Central Government, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguard;

c. make in such reports recommendations for the effective implementation of those safeguards for the improving the conditions of women by the Union or any state;

d. review, from time to time, the exiting provisions of the Constitution and other laws affecting women and recommend amendments thereto so as to suggest remedial legislative measures to meet any lacunae, inadequacies or shortcomings in such legislations;

e. take up cases of violation of the provisions of the Constitution and of other laws relating to women with the appropriate authorities;

f. look into complaints and take suo moto notice of matters relating to:-

i. deprivation of women’s rights;

ii. non-implementation of laws enacted to provide protection to women and also to achieve the objective of equality and development;

iii. non-compliance of policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at mitigating hardships and ensuring welfare and providing relief to women, and take up the issues arising out of such matters with appropriate authorities;

g. call for special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women and identify the constraints so as to recommend strategies for their removal;

h. undertake promotional and educational research so as to suggest ways of ensuring due representation of women in all spheres and identify factors responsible for impeding their advancement, such as, lack of access to housing and basic services, inadequate support services and technologies for reducing drudgery and occupational health hazards and for increasing their productivity;

i. participate and advice on the planning process of socio-economic development of women;

j. evaluate the progress of the development of women under the Union and any State;

k. Inspect or cause to inspected a jail, remand home, women’s institution or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise and take up with the concerned authorities for remedial action, if found necessary;

l. Fund litigation involving issues affecting a large body of women;

m. Make periodical reports to the Government on any matter pertaining to women and in particular various difficulties under which women toil;

n. Any other matter which may be referred to it by Central Government.

 

2. The Central Government shall cause all the reports referred to in clause (b) of sub-section (1) to be laid before each House of Parliament along with memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the Union and the reasons for the non-acceptance, if any, of any such recommendations.

3. Where any such report or any part thereof relates to any matter with which any State Government is concerned, the Commission shall forward an copy of such report or part to such State Government who shall cause it to be laid before the Legislature of the State along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the State and the reasons for the non-acceptance,if any, of any such recommendations.

4. The Commission shall, while investigating any matter referred to in clause (a) or sub-clause (i) of clause (f) of sub-section (1), have all the powers of a civil court trying a suit and, in particular in respect of the following matters, namely :-

a. summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath;

b. requiring the discovery and production of any document;

c. receiving evidence on affidavits;

d. requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office;

e. issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents; and

f. any other matter which may be prescribed.

 

 

NCW has adopted a Multi-Pronged strategy to tackle the problem of violence against women:

  • Generation of legal awareness among women, thus equipping them with the knowledge of their legal rights and with a capacity to use these rights.
  • Assisting women in redressal of their grievances through Prelitigation services.
  • Facilitating speedy delivery of justice to women by organizing Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats in different parts of the country.
  • Review of the existing provisions of the Constitution and other laws affecting women and recommending amendments thereto, any lacunae, inadequacies or short comings in such legislation’s.
  • Organizing promotional activities to mobilize women and get information about their status and recommend paradigm shift in the empowerment of women.
  • Investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution and other laws;
  • Review, from time to time, the exiting provisions of the Constitution and other laws affecting women;
  • take up cases of violation of the provisions of the Constitution and of other laws; look into complaints and take suo moto notice of matters;
  • deprivation of women’s rights;
  • special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women;
  • undertake promotional and educational research so as to suggest ways of ensuring due representation of women in all spheres and identify factors responsible for impeding their advancement;
  • advice on the planning process of socio-economic development of women;
  • evaluate the progress of the development of women under the Union and any State;
  • inspect or cause to inspected a jail, remand home, women’s institution or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise and take up with the concerned authorities for remedial action, if found necessary;
  • fund litigation involving issues affecting a large body of women;

 

CONSLUSION

The human rights movement in the new millennium needs to reflect on and be pro-active rather than reactive in evolving a new culture which is more sensitive, reflective and responsive to social relations. The focus must be the consciousness and arrest of those processes – political. Cultural, religious or economic which structure, generate, maintain and reproduce conflicts, violence and disrespect for human rights. Evolving the kind of culture requires working at various levels such as: (a) spreading awareness amongst masses, particularly amongst weaker, poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, of and about their human rights, (b) improving capacities and confidence more so in the case of weak and disadvantaged to stand and ask for enforcement, protection and preservation of their rights, (c) sensitizing and requiring people to shed away some of their prejudices and attitudes which are derogatory of others’ dignity, (d) creating different kind of knowledge, innovating of reforming structures, evolving methodologies and normative regimes that are more responsive to human right jurisprudence, (e) devising and imparting new skills, training and competencies amongst the policy makers, decision makers and those responsible for executive these policies and human rights in discharging their functions. (f) Devisingh new and making effective existing structures of accountability so that state agencies and other power-holders can be easily held responsible for their disregard of human rights. This may gradually lead into the internalizing respect for human rights. Thus a massive transformation and education including higher education can play a significant role in bringing this revolution. Thus, acting as a catalyst of socio-economic transformation, process of education can play an important role in evolving hum rights culture.

The present world is going to be led by science and technology revolution. We have already witnessed the emergence of gene-technology, biologically manipulated products and many other such wonders. The real challenge is to ensure that through modern development in science and human exploitation and miseries. It is needed to ensure that new science and technology it does not acquire the arrogance and be the carrier of new kinds of human exploitations and miseries. It is needed to ensure that new science and technology become responsive and gets dedicated to the cause of humanity and human development .

‘ A nation’s ability to convert knowledge into wealth and social good through the process of innovation is going to determine its future’. The need is to empower the people and to develop strategies, which aim at development of capabilities of every individual to realize the full potential. Economics of knowledge is the methodology of improving the quality of governance through human development. The need is to harness the full potential of knowledge for human resource development, which is considerable in this region with its large population. Economics of knowledge provide the mechanism for forging tools to convert the intellectual capital into creative and productive kinetic energy to emerge as an economic power. The aim and objective of governance must be to achieve this end, and for this, it must become human governance i.e. good governance with focus on people’s welfare. The agenda must include these items together with mechanism for enforcing accountability of everyone exercising public power.

The emphasis on human dignity laid in the UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the several international covenants, as also in the national Constitutions, is the core value of human rights. The universally accepted belief that respect for human right is the only sure way of human development, which in the final analysis is the true index of progress and advancement. Human Right in the new millennium is the sure means of achieving not merely universal progress but also global peace and harmony.

 

 

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References and Readings

  • Andrew Clapham, Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

  • Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory & Practice, Cornell, Cornell University Press, 2003.

  • P.M. Bakshi, The Constitution of India, Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co., 2007.

  • Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent in India: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability, first edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  • Bidyut Chakrabarty, Indian Politics and Society since Independence: Events, Processes and Ideology, New York: Routeledge, 2008.

  • The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India: nhrc.nic.in.

  • The National Commission for Women: ncw.nic.in.

  • The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR): ncpcr.gov.in.