• Activists demand budget, office, staff, resource, seal, independence from Women’s Affairs Min.

 A group of civil society activists and organisations representing various communities has written to the President, requesting the urgent enabling of the functioning of the National Women’s Commission. 

 The Commission’s membership has recently been appointed. The Commission has the power to, among other things, inquire into and investigate the infringement of women’s rights and receive complaints. 

2However, the letter notes that the Commission has not been allocated a budget, does not have an independently situated office space, does not have any staff or resources to function and does not even have an official seal. “The Commission has already been made subordinate to the Women’s Affairs Ministry, which clearly violates the purpose, mandate and independence of the Commission. You, as the Executive President responsible for appointing the Commission, violate your constitutional mandate by deliberately leaving the Commission inoperative. As a result, you also become responsible for enabling the culture of misogyny and sexism to further spread in our society without legal protections for victims. As women and as victims of gender based violence, we find this conduct of yours unconscionable. We demand that you enable the Commission to function by allocating it sufficient finances, resources and an independent office space. We further demand that the Commission be given the political and financial space and means to function independent of the said Ministry. We further demand that you provide a timeline as to when these measures will be taken and when the Commission will become fully operative,” the letter concluded. 

An increasing incidence of violence against women has been observed in the last few months. Violence at home, the workplace, in public spaces and online continues unabated. Even the Prime Minister has not been spared from sexualised abuse and attacks online. Most recently, several women including attorney Swasthika Arulingam have been subjected to sexualised verbal attacks online by Parliamentarian Dr. Ramanathan Archchuna.