DCW chief Swati Maliwal says father sexually assaulted her

Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Saturday said she has been a victim of sexual assault at the hand of her father when she was a child.

Taking part in an award function organised by the women’s commission, Swati Maliwal said the event made her emotional as the struggle stories of the women awardees reminded her of her own struggle — how she was ‘sexually assaulted’ by her father. “My father used to beat me up a lot.

I used to hide under the bed when he came home, I was so scared. At that time, I used to think the whole night about how to empower women against such atrocities. He used to hold my hair and hit my head hard against the wall. But I believe that ignited the determination in me to work for the welfare of the women,” Swati Maliwal said adding that she stayed with his father till class four.

Swati Maliwal became the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women in 2015 as the Aam Aadmi Party formed the government. Her tenure was extended later. Before leading DCW, she worked as the advisor of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Swati Maliwal was married to Naveen Jaihind, former Haryana AAP chief. They got divorced in 2020.

Maliwal is vocal on social media against cases of atrocities on women. In January, after back-to-back incidents of crime against women in Delhi, Maliwal claimed to be inspecting the security situation at night in Delhi when a drunken cab driver locked her hand in the car window and dragged her.

Recently, actor-turned-politician BJP’s Khushbu Sundar, who became a member of the National Commission for Women, recounted her first-hand experience of sexual abuse at the age of eight by her father. “I think when a child is abused, it scars the child for life and it’s not about a girl or a boy. My mother has been through the most abusive marriage. A man who probably thought it was his birthright to beat up his wife, beat up his children, sexually abuse his only daughter. When my abuse started I was just 8 years old and I had the courage to speak against him when I was 15,” Khushbu said.