New Delhi, Mar 07: A parliamentary committee on empowerment of women today assailed the government for its "lackadaisical" attitude in not expeditiously finalising amendments to laws concerning women. The committee, headed by Congress MP Margaret Alva, in its report placed in Parliament today, said though the National Commission for Women had sent to the government the outcome of its review in respect of 32 acts having provisions affecting women five years ago, amendments to any of the acts had not been finalised so far. "The slow pace at which the government proceeded to have consultations with the concerned ministries/departments and to amend the acts is regrettable. All this shows the lackadaisical manner of handling such an urgent matter," said the report.
It was high time the government speeded up the process of finalising the requisite proposals with a view to bringing the necessary amendments to the acts, it said. Noting that though the NCW Act was in existence for more than a decade, the report said only 18 states had constituted the state commissions for women in their states.
The committee felt that the approach of the government has been rather "casual" which was evident from the fact that only five reminders had been issued at the level of minister in charge to the state governments requesting them to set up state level women commissions. The committee desired that the government should amend the NCW Act to make it mandatory for the states to constitute women commissions.
Bureau Report