Pulled up, WCD official slits her wrist

A senior woman and child development ministry official slit her wrist in her Shastri Bhawan office on Tuesday after a turbulent meeting with her boss, WCD secretary Nita Chowdhury.

A senior woman and child development ministry official slit her wrist in her Shastri Bhawan office on Tuesday after a turbulent meeting with her boss, WCD secretary Nita Chowdhury.

HT Image

Rugmini Parmar, the ministry’s economic adviser, was taken to RML hospital by colleagues and later discharged after first-aid as the cut wasn’t deep.

The Indian Economic Services officer was reportedly pulled up by Chowdhury over work pending in her department at the meeting. She put up with it, sources said, adding that others present were quiet too.

But after the meeting, Parmar — who works in the women’s bureau that drafts key legislation, right from preventing sexual abuse at the workplace to the dowry prohibition law — went to her room and slit her wrist. She was later found bleeding by her personal secretary.

Parmar, an official said, had sought and received a transfer from the ministry and was expected to leave by next week.

Sources said this wasn’t the first time she — and other officials in the ministry — had felt humiliated by Chowdhury’s “acerbic remarks”.

The secretary, a UP cadre IAS officer, did not respond to calls and texts to her mobile. Parmar, too, was not available for comment. A man who answered her phone said she didn’t want to speak on the incident.