Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna. (File Photo/PTI)
The notorious case of a Member of Parliament from Karnataka, Prajwal Revanna, carries a history of abusing women, young and old. Grandson of a former prime minister, his family’s country home is the venue of abuse. This story has outraged women and men of India.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) is a statutory body for women with autonomous powers to question and hold to account anyone, including ministers, even the Prime Minister. The NCW Act (1990) provides protection for women under the umbrella of the Commission. Statutory institutions like the NCW and State Women Commissions have enormous power under the law. The NCW has, by law, the powers of a civil court.
The Constitution of India has endowed men and women with equal rights. But society, unfortunately, has not caught up.
We both served as Members of the NCW in the late 1990s. We have a fundamental question for the chairperson of the NCW: Has she forgotten her statutory powers? Has she forgotten that she can have no stakes in political parties? She is the legally ordained protector of women and their rights. Her main function is to protect women from abuse, exploitation, threat and force.
However, she has been making strange statements. She is not a politician nor should she be biased against any political party. How can she, sitting at a distance from the crimes and the victims, declare that these cases of sexual abuse are false? If she does not understand her role and responsibilities, she has no business being in the chair. To stand by the women abused by the alleged accuser is her brief. She does not have to wait for the victim to come to her doorstep. She must rush to where the outrage has occurred. She need not wait to receive complaints. That many families of the village where the alleged assaults took place have shifted their residences speaks to the sad state of affairs. Such news from everywhere and anywhere should be the trigger for intervention by NCW.
Several incidents have surfaced in the case of Prajwal Revanna — the alleged abuse has been going on for years. To protect their family’s name or simply out of fear of repercussions, the victims kept silent.
In 1998, when we were members of the NCW, we summoned an erring chief minister for interrogation. He excused himself from appearing but sent a state minister to appear before the Commission. In another case, an abusive state minister was pulled up by the NCW which eventually led to his dismissal. The second chairperson of NCW, Mohini Giri, submitted her resignation before the then prime minister on a matter of principle pertaining to the powers of NCW. Her resignation was not accepted. All these incidents are on record in a book titled They Hang: 12 Women in My Portrait Gallery by Syeda Hameed.
The present chairperson of the NCW appears to be succumbing to political pressures. And as a result, a once powerful body stands reduced.
If the chairperson does not assert her powers, it will negate the work of stalwarts like Geeta Mukherjee, Vimla Farooqui and Lakshmi Raghuramaiah. The chairperson must be bold and assertive to fight for women’s rights. She cannot be a mouthpiece for the powerful.
It becomes a duty of all of us, women and men, regardless of political affiliations, to fight for the women who have been abused. As the poet Dylan Thomas said: Do not go gentle into the night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Seth is a lawyer and former Member of NCW and Syeda Hameed is a writer and former Member of NCW
