NGO demands GSCW reshuffle

Panaji: Tara Kerkar and other members of the NGO Savera have written to the chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar protesting against the appointment of the same set of members for the Goa state commission for women. Kerkar has given the CM 15 days to reconstitute the committee failing which the organization will protest at the CM's residence, she said.
According to a gazette notification published this month, advocate Vidya Arjun Shet Tanavade will head the commission for another term. Neena Rajendra Naik, Dolla Rodrigues, Vavita Vallab Raikar, Sonia Mahanand Asnodkar, Eslinda D'Souza, Samira Cardoso and MLA Jennifer Monserrate will continue as members of the commission for another term (for a period of another three years) after they were appointed in March 2013. An order dated March 15, 2016, stated that Linette Ferrao too would continue as member secretary but another order on April 11 which superseded the previous one has named Siddhivinayak S Naik as member secretary.
"Is it that in the whole state of Goa there are no eligible women that the same committee is appointed again even after such a disgraceful performance? By selecting this committee again you have cheated the women, who voted for you as this commission has not performed at all," the letter to the CM states.
Despite atrocities against women ranging from molestation and rapes in schools to murders and domestic violence, on the rise, the commission hasn't issued any statements in this regard and hasn't met with the victims or come to their assistance, Kerkar told reporters on Monday. Andrea Pereira said the commission is one of the few in the country that doesn't have a website or and mobile numbers of its members listed online.
Commission members often complain that they don't have adequate powers to intervene in cases. If so, why are they part of the commission in the first place, Kerkar asked, adding that members don't like getting their hands dirty and tell women in distress to get their problems solved by going to court.