Ms. Rekha Sharma assumed the charge of Chairperson, National Commission for Women on August 7, 2018. Previously Smt. Sharma held the additional charge of the Chairperson (I/C), National Commission for Women with effect from September 29, 2017.
Smt. Sharma has been a Member of the Commission since August, 2015. Before joining the Commission, Smt. Sharma was actively associated with civil society organizations in different capacities. Smt. Sharma has worked extensively on issues impacting women’s lives. She has conducted over 50 inquiries in matters relating to deprivation of women’s rights and liberty. Smt. Sharma has been championing the cause of vulnerable sections of women, including women workers in tea gardens that have been closed, and women in shelter homes. The issues related to female prisoners are particularly close to her heart.
She has actively been advocating for improving the conditions of the women prisoners, especially the undertrails. She has been visiting a number of jails and made recommendations for improving the facilities provided to the jail inmates. During her time at the Commission, Smt. Sharma has pro-actively been pursuing the concerns of the Indian women deserted by their NRI husbands living abroad including issues related to child custody. She has also extensively worked on the cases related to sexual harassment of women. Smt. Sharma has also conducted numerous capacity building programmes for police personnel in India.
In addition, she has chaired a large number of Mahila Jan Sunwais/ Public Hearings, across the country, in which, over 2,000 complaints have been addressed. Married to an Army Officer, she has worked towards promoting better standard of living and education for wives and children of soldiers to make them more self reliant in order to brave the day-to-day rigors and challenges of the Army life. Prior to joining the Commission, she was a Member of the District Consumer & Redressal Forum in the Government of Haryana. Smt. Sharma has also been instrumental in the establishment of a registered NGO called ‘Haryana Mahila Uthan Samiti’ which works for the empowerment of rural women in the state.