JOIN US The earlier space-starved DCW is going to get a new branch located in Moolchand as the commission plans to expand its manpower.
The Delhi Commission for Women is in the process of hiring lawyers, researchers, and staff for setting up various cells to strengthen its core team to handle a variety of cases and give continuous recommendations to the government. However, due to paucity of space at its office in Vikash Bhawan in Indarprastha, the plan of expansion of resources has not been achieved completely.
Currently, even the 181 women’s helpline, recently handed over to the commission by the Delhi government, is being run from Delhi Secretariat. The commission wants to bring the staff under its ambit soon.
“We have been already allotted the space. The 181 helpline will be shifted either to Moolchand office or here. We want to bring this department at par with any other functional department,” said DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal Jaihind.
“We want to expand so that the work we have taken up is done in a sustained manner. We have to set up different cells which will carry out specialised research on issues and a change in both infrastructure and human resources is possible after we have more space. Whatever we have done till now is the result and overwork of a small team,” she added.
The DCW had recently increased the number of mobile vans to 22 – two in each of the 11 districts – from five which respond to rescue calls. The helpline has seen a huge traffic since it was integrated with the 181 helpline and the number of vans to be stationed for rescuing purposes was increased to 22 in February.
According to data available with the DCW, where the mobile helpline used to get 5-10 calls per day before Feb 2016, after the increase in resources, the helpline is receiving 50-60 calls per day on an average.
In a recent success story, when 29-year-old Anju, working as a domestic help, was denied permission to leave her employer's house in Civil Lines to go to her village, she called the DCW's mobile helpline and was rescued.
Anju wanted to leave work to attend to her ailing father in the village but her employers denied it. They even held her salary and restrained her from stepping out of the house. When the mobile helpline received the complaint, they rescued her with the help of ASI and SI of Civil lines Police Station and filed a complaint against her employers.
The helpline was launched in August 2010 with only five mobile vans which the officials say were inadequate to respond to rescue calls from all the 11 districts in the capital. The number was increased to 22 by introducing 17 new vans to be driven by women driversin February.
Earlier, the rescue calls or those needing immediate assistance by the commission on the 181 women’s helpline were transferred to a coordinator in the commission. Now, such calls are transferred to the NGOs attached with the DCW who decide on further action along with the police and counselors of the commission.