Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Tuesday wrote a letter to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, suggesting that a high-level committee be formed for a coordinated strategy to tackle crimes against women, following the Kanjhawala incident.
In the letter, DCW Chief Swati Maliwal recommended that the panel be chaired by the Union home minister and include Delhi's lieutenant governor, chief minister and the police commissioner. It should meet once a month and "create a coordinated strategy for tackling crimes against women and girls in the capital", she said.
Maliwal said that this heinous incident on the night of New Year again raises serious concerns over the functioning of Police in the Capital. “India would be hosting the G20 summit this year and the government must take urgent steps to improve law and order in the capital,” she asserted.
Maliwal recalled the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder and said nothing much had changed since. On an average, Delhi continues to witness over six rapes daily. Even an eight-month-old child and a 90-year-old woman have been brutally raped in the capital, she said.
Lack of police resources and accountability are the major reasons for high crime rate against women and girls in Delhi, she said.
The proposed high-level panel, she recommended, should take urgent steps to increase the accountability of Delhi Police and sensitise its officers.