Five posts of members of Haryana state women commission lying vacant adding to woes

Haryana State Women Commission (HSWC) is generally concerned with advising the government on all policy matters affecting women. The state women commissions play an important role in addressing complaints related to abuse and assault on women. HSWC which was established with an aim to safeguard women’s rights and safety is functioning without members as all five posts of members are lying vacant for more than a period of two years hampering the commission and causing a complaint backlog.

At present, the appointment of a new Vice-Chairperson is also pending in the Commission for the last one year. In such a situation, it necessitates the appointment of all five members without further delay to ensure the smooth functioning of commission and timely disposal of complaints being received. HSWC came into force vide notification dated 20th December, 1999 and became a statutory body through an enactment by the State Legislature on 15 December announced 12 and known as the Haryana State Commission for Women Act No. 27 of 2012. Under Section 3 of HSWC Act, it is provided that the Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and 5 members to be nominated by the Government, wherein one member shall be from the scheduled caste.

The Director, Women and Child Development Department (WCD) and DG Police of Haryana are its ex-officio Members. The Administrative Secretary, WCD shall be a special invitee. The Commission shall have a Member Secretary. In accordance with the above, the Government established HSWC with the aim of respecting and furthering the specific provisions of fundamental rights and to give effect to certain Directive Principles of State Policy. According to Section 3(2)(b) of the Haryana State Commission for Women Act, 2012 enacted by the State Assembly, in addition to the Chairperson, the Commission may have one Vice-Chairperson and a maximum of five members who are nominated by the State Government, including at least one member from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.

In addition to the above officials, as per the 2012 law, a senior HCS or IAS woman officer will be the Member Secretary of the Commission. It is worth mentioning that on July 18, 2017 Pratibha Suman was appointed the then Chairperson of the Haryana State Women Commission, a few months later, on December 12, 2017, Preeti Bhardwaj from Gurugram was appointed the Vice-Chairperson of the Commission while Indu Yadav from Charkhi Dadri, Namrata Gaur from Ambala, Renu Bhatia from Faridabad, Sonia Aggarwal from Sonipat and Suman Bedi from Jind were made members of the commission. According to Section 4 of the Haryana State Women Commission Act, 2012, the tenure of all the above-mentioned officials is also three years like that of the Chairperson.

Pertaining to the issue, Renu Bhatia who holds the charge of the chairperson of HSWC said that she is in constant touch with the government and the members are likely to be appointed after the parliamentary elections.

It is pertinent to mention that the mandate of the Haryana State Commission for Women flows from the special provisions that have been made in the Constitution of India to ensure protection of status of women in India.