Hyderabad: The State Mahila Commission remains a mere mediating body even after a year of being set up. No director has been appointed since 2004, no working secretary since December 2013, and it has no section officer or an SP rank officer. There is also no legal or family counselling cell. After bifurcation, the Commission was included in the Tenth Schedule. However, Ms Venkatratnam, the chairperson, says, “We haven’t received any notification from the government so far.”
The Commission is also very poorly funded which in turn has affected disposal rate of cases. What is going to be the future status of the commission. “We haven’t received any notification or a circular from the government so far. They say it’s a statutory body, but we don’t know anything more on it,” said Tripurana Venkatratnam, Chairperson of the commission for both the states.
Apart from the powers for the commission, the funds are also very minimal. “The commission receives Rs 40-50 lakh annually from the government. Apart from a full-fledged staff, we would also need a research team, a counselling cell and a legal cell. This would easily elevate the funds to Rs 1 crore. Other state commissions receive more than this.
Kerala has its own research team and also a special cell for exclusively dealing with NRI complaints,” she remarked. “This is definitely leading to slower rate of disposal of complaints as now the commission has to approach two different governments for carrying on different activities. “It has not complicated things, but it will definitely slow down the rate of disposal,” the chairperson said.
The commission has written about ten recommendations to the Telangana State department for Women and Child welfare to be implemented from now on. “We have asked for more women police stations, more fast track courts, to minimise the issue of jurisdiction in police stations to deal with women cases, start a full-fledged helpline for women, among others,” she said.
