NEW DELHI, Aug 5: The Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), an advisory body to AAP Government, today released for public consultation the draft Charter of Women's Rights Bill, 2015, which seeks to ensure enforcement of fundamental rights of women and their safety.
The proposed bill aims at strengthening Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) by giving more administrative and judicial powers, and incorporates the recommendation made by Justice J S Verma Committee in the wake of the Nirbhaya rape case.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal informed Delhi Assembly of the proposed bill during the special session held on Monday.
The DDC today uploaded a copy of the draft bill on their website for public consultation. It will take comments and suggestion online for the next four weeks.
"People can also visit the office of DDC to give suggestions and DDC will also organise round table at the commission where each and every section of the proposed bill will be discussed," DDC Vice Chairman Ashish Khetan said.
"DDC teams after consultation with all stakeholders have made this draft bill. This is first-of-its-kind law which a state government will propose before the people of the state intending that soon it will be made law. We have incorporated all the recommendation of Justice J S Verma committee, along with some expanded rights," Khetan said.
According to DDC officials, the bill proposes to provide a comprehensive framework for women residing in Delhi to effectively enforce their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and various existing statutes - including the right against all forms of violence, the right to appropriate health care, the right to education, right to privacy and the right to equality.
To enforce this bill, DDC has also proposed to give more teeth to DCW by giving additional administrative and judicial power. It also proposed that DCW will work as a single window to work and enforce women related matter.
"It proposes to expand the remit of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) to take penal action to secure women's access to the rights, and to award compensation in active violation of rights and gross negligence on the part of the State so that equality and justice becomes a reality for the majority of Delhi's citizens.
"It is easy to frame a law but the government could not implement it. In the draft bill, we have identified 29 such acts for women security which could not be implemented properly so we will have a public consultation on implementation of these," Khetan said. DDC will take comments, suggestions from people, judiciary, civil society and government officials before completing and presenting the draft bill before the cabinet.
Officials said the bill recognises several factors that may compound the marginalisation of women, including economic status, caste, religion, disability, occupation and age. The proposed bill provides an adjudicatory and administrative system to implement the rights conferred on the women.
"The Draft Bill enables a woman to seek redressal of legal grievances in a time-bound and effective manner against private individuals and the State," Khetan said.
