Source: The Pioneer
NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 5, 2001: Spearheading the celebrations in the capital, nearly 5,000 poor women will join the Delhi Council for Women (DCW). Plans including forming a human chain and pledging to make Delhi a safer city for women on the millennium’s first international Women’s Day, Thursday. According to DCW chairperson Anjali Rai, women from various resettlement colonies and slum clusters will interact with representatives from 89 NGOs. According to Ms. Rai, the DCW for the past few months has been promoting the concept of Mahila Panchayats, a sort of women’s court, across the city to keep a vigil on acts of domestic violence in resettlement colonies providing para-legal aid to the victims. See also the article on these Mahila Panchayats at http://www.timesofindia.com/ 190101/19mdel15.htm. The DCW run helpline has alone recorded 2,630 cases of harassment and violence against women in the past one year.