Swati Maliwal: Newest AAP Rajya Sabha Nominee And Former DCW Chief (image:twitter.com/SwatiJaiHind)
Swati Maliwal, senior leader and the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) is the newest AAP nominee for Rajya Sabha MP post. Following the announcement, she stepped down from her position as DCW chief after holding the office successfully for 8 years. Her first term as the DCW Chairperson began in July 2015, then her period was extended for three years in July 2018. Swati Maliwal was the youngest person to head the Women”s organisation.
39-year-old activist, before serving DCW, worked as an advisor to the Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal on public grievances and has also actively associated with Anna Hazare-led the India Against Corruption movement. She is staunch advocate of women”s rights and social justice issues, and her activities underlines her affinity with the goal. In May previous year, while addressing media after DCW International Women”s Day Awards ceremony Swati revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by her father during the childhood days, and its impact prompted her to fight for the women”s rights. “While hiding under the bed, I used to think how I will teach a lesson to such men who abuse women and children, and how I can help women get their rights,” Times of India quoted as she was saying.
Born in a middle-class family in Uttar Pradesh”s Ghaziabad, in early student days, she dreamt of working in a nice multinational firm abroad. But during her volunteering days in an underprivileged school, after graduation, she said, “made me really question my dreams and my outlook on life” The Guardian reports. Swati is a graduate in Information Technology from the JSS Academy of Technical Education. She worked at HCL and then she left job at the at the age of 22 to join the NGO Parivartan led by Arvind Kejriwal and jailed AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Though she was married to AAP leader Naveen Jaihind, the couple got divorced in February 2020.
During her tenure as DCW chief she has undertook several initiatives and campaign for advancing women”s causes. In 2018, she went on an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi”s Rajghat, demanding strict anti-rape laws in India, and it ended on the 10th day when the Union Cabinet passed an ordinance favouring stringent punishment, including the death penalty for committing rape.
