200 apply for vacant posts at state women commission in Bihar

The social welfare department, which invited entries for these posts, has received around 200 applications for vacant positions.

Preparations have begun to get the Bihar State Commission for Women a new chairperson and also to reconstitute the seven-member panel at the women commission, officials privy to the development said.

New Delhi, India - April 9, 2017: Bihar Chief Minister and JDU leader, Nitish Kumar during his rally for the forth coming MCD Election at Meetha Pur near Badar Pur in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, April 9, 2017. (Photo by Sushil Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

“We have sought the date and time for the meeting from social welfare minister, Madan Sahni. He, along with the education minister, has been the members of the selection committee. Once the scheduled of the meeting is finalised, members will sit together to review the applications,” Rajkumar, social welfare director and member secretary of the selection committee, said.

The social welfare department, which invited entries for these posts, has received around 200 applications for vacant positions. The selection committee which has been created by the department will soon be holding a meeting for the scrutiny and screening of the entries.

The state women commission has been without a chairperson and the panel of members since November 2020. The three-year term of the chairperson and members lasted till October 31, 2020.

Once there will be a consensus over the names, the tentative list of candidates will be forwarded to the government for approval, Rajkumar added.

The official said that posts in the women commission would have been filled much earlier “but the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown delayed things,” he said.

Meena Tiwari, the All India Progressive Women’s Association general secretary, said for the last seven months the state women commission has been without the chairperson and panel members. “Imagine the situation of women who have been the victims of physical or mental violence. How helpless they must be feeling in this situation,” she said.

Not less than 20,000 cases must be pending here as the state commission, which earlier used to receive cases related to women through the post only, started receiving applications online also just before the expiry of the last panel of members, she added. “Not surprisingly, even those women who could have registered the case at the commission office must have tried registering cases online,” she said. Members were also receiving cases on WhatsApp, she added.