The National Commission for Women: Why It Exists

In one line

The National Commission for Women Act, 1990 creates a statutory commission for the largest disadvantaged group in the country, and its distinguishing features appear from the first three sections.

Section 1 and section 2

Section 1: short title, extent to the whole of India, and commencement on such date as the Central Government may by notification appoint.

Section 2 contains only three definitions: Commission means the National Commission for Women constituted under section 3; Member means a Member of the Commission and includes the Member-Secretary; and prescribed means prescribed by rules made under the Act.

Two things follow from that short definition section.

There is no definition of the protected class, and there does not need to be. Women require no notification, no list and no schedule, which is the single largest structural difference between this Commission and the Minorities Commission, and it should be stated at the outset of any comparison.

And the Member-Secretary is a Member. Section 2(b) includes them, so the officer who runs the Commission's administration is also a decision-making Member, which is a design choice worth noticing when the Commission's independence is assessed.

Why the Commission was created

Three reasons, and they explain what the Act was expected to do.

Because a national committee on the status of women reported in the mid-1970s that the constitutional guarantees had not translated into equality in practice and recommended a standing body to monitor them. The Commission's function of monitoring the safeguards is a direct descendant of that recommendation.

Because the group is not a minority and could not be protected by minority machinery. Women are half the population, so the article 29 and article 30 apparatus is unavailable, and nothing else existed.

And because the disadvantage is distributed across every other group, so a commission for the Scheduled Castes, for minorities or for tribal communities would each reach only the women within its own class. A cross-cutting disadvantage requires a cross-cutting institution, and that argument is the one worth making.

Section 3: constitution

3(1): the Central Government shall constitute a body to be known as the National Commission for Women.

3(2): the Commission shall consist of:

(a) a Chairperson, committed to the cause of women, to be nominated by the Central Government;

(b) five Members to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of ability, integrity and standing who have had experience in law or legislation, trade unionism, management of an industry or organisation committed to increasing the employment potential of women, women's voluntary organisations including women activists, administration, economic development, health, education or social welfare, provided that at least one Member each shall be from amongst persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively;