5.3.3. Women

National Commission for Women

The National Commission for Women was set up 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 redressal of grievances and

♤ Advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women. Various functions of the commission are following:

♤ Look into complaints and take suo moto notice of matters relating to:

o Deprivation of women's rights;

o Non-implementation of laws enacted to provide protection to women and also to achieve the objective of equality and development

o Non-compliance of policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at mitigating hardships and ensuring welfare and providing relief to 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

♤ Participate and advice on the planning process of socio-economic development of women;

♤ Inspect or cause to inspect a jail, remand home or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise and take up with the concerned authorities for remedial action

♤ Fund litigation involving issues affecting a large body of women

♤ Make periodical reports to the Government on any matter pertaining to women The Commission shall have all the powers of a civil court which includes:

♤ Summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath

♤ Requiring the discovery and production of any document

♤ Receiving evidence on affidavits

♤ Requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office

♤ Issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents

The Commission has taken up various initiatives such as-

♤ 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.