MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI JASKAUR MEENA)
(a)&(b) National Commission for Women (NCW) has informed
that it has received the following number of complaints
since 2000:-
Year (Jan. to Dec.) No. of complaints
2000 5267 2001 4012 2002 7000 2003 (Jan. to July, 2003) 3650 Total 19,929
Out of the complaints received from the year 2000
onwards, the NCW disposed off 5826 complaints and forwarded
11,803 complaints to the respective State Commissions for
Women/Women and Child Development Department of the
concerned State Government for appropriate action.
(c) The Government has already enacted a number of
legislations to protect women from atrocities. The Indian
Penal Code has several provisions to deal with offences
against women such as the offence of dowry death, the
offence of cruelty, both mental and physical, offences of
molestation, rape etc. Apart from the general Criminal
Laws, the Government has also enacted special laws like
Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Indecent Representation of
Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, Immoral Traffic (Prevention)
Act, 1956 and the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.
The Protection from Domestic Violence Bill, 2002 has
been introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8th March, 2002.
Since violence against women is a reflection of gender
discriminatory attitude of the society towards them, the
Government has taken a number of steps to raise their
status. These include media campaigns, awareness generation
camps, spreading legal literacy, counseling, legal aid,
support to voluntary agencies and schemes for the socio-
economic empowerment of women.
The National Policy for the Empowerment of Women is
committed to eliminating the incidence of all forms of
violence against women, including those arising from customs
such as dowry.
The National Commission for Women constitutd as an apex
level statutory body under the National Commission for Women
Act, 1990 is mandated to look into complaints of deprivation
of women’s rights and take up issues arising out of it with
the appropriate authorities.
