The contract workers of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) have been dismissed with immediate effect. DCW Assistant Secretary Gautam Majumdar has issued orders to terminate all contract workers. The order was passed based on the April 2024 order of the DCW Ministry and with the approval of the Delhi Local Government.
Also deleted in April
This year, the Delhi Women’s Commission sparked controversy when it sacked contract workers on April 29. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena was targeted by Swati Maliwal, the former chairperson of the committee. An order said the creation of 223 posts in DCW was illegal and all contract employees should be terminated. In this regard, Maliwal said that this move will bring trouble to DCW. He claimed that without these contract workers, DCW branches such as Women’s Helpline 181 and Crisis Intervention Center would not have been able to handle so many cases over the past eight years. But what was the reason for firing these employees? How many contract employees at DCW are affected by this order? On April 29, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) issued an order to terminate DCW contract workers. It cited the findings of a 2017 report submitted to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
According to the order, the creation of 223 positions by DCW is illegal and does not have the approval of the Department of Finance and the Lieutenant Governor. The order passed by Additional Director Dr Navlendra Kumar Singh also stated that no evaluation was conducted before creating new posts in the women’s cell.
The story begins in September 2016. DCW created 223 additional positions in a meeting held on September 9, 2016. A few weeks later, women and child development organizations asked DCW member secretaries to inform the committee about the terms of the grants being offered to them.
The conditions state that DCW “shall not engage in any work or activity that would create additional financial responsibilities for the government, such as the creation of positions, without approval from the executive branch and the finance and planning department.”
In October 2016, the Ministry of Women and Child Development again told DCW that the creation of 223 additional posts was yet to be approved by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
In February 2017, then Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baigar ordered the setting up of a committee to “investigate issues related to illegal appointments and various irregularities in the DCW”. The committee is chaired by the Chief Secretary and includes the Chief Secretary (Finance), Secretary (Law and Justice) and Secretary (DWCD).