Amid Opposition’s nepotism charges by the Kejriwal Government over her appointment, Aam Aadmi Party leader Swati Maliwal on Monday took charge as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief. She promised to make Delhi a safe haven for women. Swearing to deal with women’s issues in a free and fair manner, AAP leader Navin Jaihind’s wife said that she won’t let her party allegiance come in the way of her position as DCW chief.
“Safety of women will be my topmost priority. This commission won’t be confined to the four walls of this building anymore. We will work in tandem with the women and ensure Delhi becomes a safe place for women. I will neither do nor allow any sort of politics in women issues and work so much in the next eight months that has not happened in the previous eight years combined,” said newly-appointed 30-year-old DCW chief Swati Maliwal.
Maintaining that her party allegiance won’t cut through her official status as DCW chief, Maliwal said that she will look into both AAP leader Kumar Vishwas row and MlA Somnath Bharti’s domestic violence case. “I will go through all cases that are pending in the court. I will monitor both Vishwas and Bharti’s cases as well. I am a social worker and it doesn’t matter who the person facing allegations is,” she said.
Visibly perturbed over nepotism charges that she is faced with, the 30-year-old Maliwal said that it shows a highly objectionable and patriarchal mindset. “I have been associated with social work since 2006, worked for India Against Corruption movement and the AAP till now but all that has been overshadowed by the fact that I am an AAP leader’s wife. It shows a strictly patriarchal mindset and this is what we will change in the coming years,” she said.
Maliwal also said that the DCW will conduct random inspections at brothels, jhuggis in order to find out the ground reality. There are a total 1,500 pending complaints in the commission.
While the DCW is a recommendatory body, the newly-appointed chief said she will pitch in for more powers for the commission and change the complaint handling policy. “While the duty of the commission is to give suggestions on a particular case, even those recommendations were not given properly in the past,” Maliwal said.
“Once the case goes to the police, DCW has no say in it. This is an internal system of DCW which will be changed at first,” she added.