It has only been three months for Swati Maliwal as Delhi Commission for Women chairperson and she has already left her predecessor Barkha Singh Shukla far behind in terms of work. While Shukla pursued only one case throughout her eight-year-long tenure, Maliwal has already tracked 147 cases by now.
According to a RTI reply, Maliwal has made nine recommendations to the Delhi Government/Central Government which includes recommendation to find alternate procurement to plug the gap between supplies of condoms, request to convene the meeting of committee on trafficking formed after Supreme Court ruling three years ago and request for implementation of Delhi Victim Compensation Scheme, 2015 and many others.
The former chairperson made just one recommendation to the Delhi Government which is to provide drinking water and toilet facilities in slum areas for women in 2008-2009.
In terms of field visits, Shukla had only made six visits in the last eight years while Maliwal has made 19 field trips by now.
Shukla made two visits each in 2007, 2011 and 2012 which included visit to Nirmal Chaya-Home for Distressed Women, Women Prison ward of Tihar Jail, Shelter Homes at Sarai Rohila and few others.
Maliwal, on the other hand, made visits to GB brothels, overnight stay in four women night shelters, visit to Nari Niketan, GB road rescue-visit to police station.
Moreover the current team of DCW members under Maliwal has already pursued half the number of cases addressed by Shukla’s team. While DCW member Sarika Chaudhary has pursued 615 cases in the last two months, ex- DCW member Juhi Khan addressed 1430 cases in three years.
Maliwal held the office from July 18 for three years as provided under Section 4 of the DCW Act,1994. The opposition was aggressive over Maliwal’s selection terming it as “nepotism” while the AAP maintained that her selection was done purely on “merit”.