NCW In The Dock Over Manipur Incidents
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-07-22 06:52:39
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The India Commentary view
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It is strange and disturbing that the National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Rekha Sharma disclosed to the media that after the body received complaints regarding the stripping, torture and molestation of women in Manipur, it sought explanation from the state government not once but thrice without receiving a reply.
It is strange because a quasi-judicial body like the NCW cannot remain a mute spectator to such atrocities after being informed about them. It has powers to take a lot of steps, including sending a fact-finding team to the state, if it does not receive a reply from the administration.
It is disturbing because the NCW did not do any such thing. It chose not to use its powers and pursue the matter with the state government and force it to reply. Was it because the body has been politicized and with a NDA government in Manipur, it thought it best to let matters rest at that?
Whatever the reason, the NCW has let down women in Manipur as it has been doing to women all over the country in many cases. It has considerable powers to investigate, review and take action in such matters and has the mandate to provide assistance to women in distress by "summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath, requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence on affidavits, requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office, issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents, and any other matter which may be prescribed". Yet, it acts forcefully in some matters while it chooses to go slow in others. This opens it to the charge of being a biased body and does not best serve the purpose for which it was established.
