After a cancellation, two last-minute changes in schedule, I am finally sitting in front of Swati Maliwal, the new Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chairperson. But just as I switch my recorder on, there is a slight confusion. Her personal assistant shows her a news report that says students from Delhi University have written a letter to her. Only that no letter has been received. “Find out the names of the students who’ve written it and get in touch with them,” Maliwal instructs him.

I am surprised. Does the DCW have no email address? “We do, but official complaints are supposed to be in a certain format and email complaints are difficult to follow up on because they don’t carry complete details,” she tells me.

It’s a small glitch. It will be solved. But it is indicative of a much bigger malaise Maliwal will have to grapple with as the DCW head: the sins of the past commissions. A commission whose job is to help women get legal redressal but hasn’t managed putting together a robust online complaint registration mechanism in almost 20 years of its existence. The DCW’s woes extend beyond that: it is a beleaguered and discredited institution used as a retirement home for failed politicians. Maliwal, 30, fresh on the job, is undeterred and says she is here to do “good work”. It will be nothing short of a miracle, though, if she manages to stay positive for too long, considering the DCW’s track record and lack of any real powers.

Over the next half an hour or so (interrupted by a live piece-to-camera she has to do for an English news channel), I speak to her about her plans for the DCW, GB Road – Delhi’s largest red light area, allegations of political nepotism over her appointment, CCTV cameras, feminism and more.

Edited excerpts of the conversation:

What is the average day like for the DCW chairperson? The notice board outside says work begins at 9.30. When does it end?

Today has been a busy day. I had to go the Vidhan Sabha and also meet the Police Commissioner.  Usually, I step in at 9.30 and wind up at around 8:30 pm. Right now I am trying to restructure the entire programme and set up a strong monitoring mechanism.

What do you mean by restructuring?

You must have seen these people sitting outside. These are people who have approached us with their grievances. I studied almost 600 such cases under the previous commissions – and discovered that there was no relief provided in even a single case. We want to change that; we are getting in experts. Also, there are many other agencies doing the same job as we are and doing it better, so there’ no point replicating them. Our job is not that; our job is that of a monitoring agency. Apart from that, we have certain priorities, the most important being women’s safety. We have written to the sexual harassment committees of various colleges and universities – a lot of research has gone in.  We want to set up a very effective system in a very short time. So that’s what’s been taking up all my time.

You’ve said that “the DCW will not be a body constrained within these four walls”. How do you plan to do that? I don’t want to sound uncharitable, but you’ve been called a “paper tiger” and perhaps rightly so since you have no punitive or summoning powers.

I totally agree we are a recommendatory body. The problem is that the previous committees didn’t even make recommendations. I’m not saying we will change the world.  The idea is to work within the mandate of the Act. However, the Delhi Dialogue Committee has come up with a draft bill that gives us more powers, and we are working on that. But my question is, until we have more powers should we stop doing any work? Haath pe haath rakh ke baithe rahe, like the previous committees? The DCW is the only body that can go to the Nari Niketan [a shelter house for women] unannounced, and I did so and spent a night there talking to the inmates.  But I agree; our work will be much easier if our orders become mandatory.

Maneka Gandhi, the Women and Child Development Minister, submitted a proposal to bring the National Commission for Women at par with the National Human Rights Commission, which has more executive powers.  The law ministry, however, stonewalled the move. Why do you think the government is wary of giving more powers on the NCW and DCW?

I don’t know why, but it is quite unfortunate. A lot of other commissions, which shouldn’t even have judges, have a lot of powers. For example, the Central Information Commission’s orders are binding, so I don’t understand this reluctance.

Speaking on prostitution at GB road, you said in an interview to The Caravan: “6 lakh condoms are being used per month; so in a way you are allowing 6 lakh rapes in the centre of Delhi!” Do you have a solution? An intervention at a policy level?

In GB road, a woman is supposed to entertain 30-40 people every night for Rs 40-50. I met a woman in Nari Niketan, who was trafficked from Bangalore to GB road, where she worked for almost two months without any pay. If you go to GB road, you hear pimps saying 13 saal ki mast…14 saal ki mast…

But child prostitution is a completely different issue – a completely black and white one.  I’m talking about consenting adults here.

My point is there is rampant underage prostitution in GB road. An alternate mechanism needs to be created. I understand that if we thrust a sewing machine on them, they will not join a rehabilitation programme like that.

My aim is to create a lucrative enough rehabilitation programme and then it’s their choice.  The problem with this country is that whenever you want to do something, you get embroiled in a controversy.

But in hindsight, do you think it was not the brightest of ideas to tweet about it before going to GB road?

My office did it; I didn’t do it.  This time when I went to Nari Niketan, I didn’t tweet about it. I tweeted only later.

I’m sure you are prepared for this one, but do you think it’s unbecoming of the Aam Aadmi Party, which calls itself a party of change, to appoint you as the DCW chairman? After all, you do have a very long history with the Chief Minister that goes back to his activism days. Besides, your husband is an active party leader.

Judge me on the basis of my work. Has my work disappointed you?

It’s too early to say. You’ve not even been in office for a month…

I’ll let my work do the talking. I visited the Nari Niketan in the first month of my tenure – something none of my predecessors have done before. In any case, I can’t be accused of being partial.  A lot of my work has been against the government.

Why do you think the Chief Minster chose you for the job?

Mr Kejriwal, when he became CM for the second time, asked me to work on the Janta Samwad. Settling public grievances is a difficult job because there is a continuous inflow of complaints. There, I streamlined the entire mechanism of lodging police complaints. I think that is why he chose me for the job. I can assure you though that this is a statutory post and in no way will I ever be partisan.

How did your meeting with the Police Commissioner go?

It was positive. 25 days had passed since I wrote a letter to him but I had got no response. He assured me that he would respond soon. He’s promised us his full support.

Anything specific you spoke about?

We spoke about GB road and Nari Niketan.

A profile that appeared in the news website Catch describes you as “miss goody two shoes” who “never rolled up her skirt, gossiped in class, listened to pop music or wasted her emotions on frivolous crushes”. Have you always been a serious person?

I am not a serious person at all, but yes, I was shy in school…

Then Lady Shri Ram College happened?

Yes, LSR happened, but then that was for only a few months. My family pressured me into studying engineering.

So what was the trigger that made you move from computers to social work?

I had just got a placement offer from HCL. I came across this man who was teaching children. I thought I should help out since I was free then. That was an enlightening experience…these 5-year-olds, I thought, were more intelligent than me. Well, not intelligent perhaps but much more practical – well, let’s say they had a better perspective of life.  It was then that I decided I’d spend at least one year trying to understand the grassroots. One year became two and now almost 10.

Have you worked in the area of women’s rights before this, though?

Of course, that’s the first thing you do when you are working in the grassroots.

Any specific targets you have set yourself for the next one-year?

We will be working in GB Road and Nari Niketan. Then, there are the shelter homes, the problem of women and children forced to sleep on the streets. Also, there’s alcoholism and how it affects women. The plan is to work in tandem with the Delhi police, set up CCTV cameras…

Ever since AAP’s come into power, CCTV cameras have almost become the singular solution for everything. Many feminist groups have, however, objected to the proliferation of CCTV cameras everywhere in the city. Do you think CCTV cameras can be intrusive?

Everything has a role. CCTV cameras by itself won’t solve anything. There has to be better policing. But CCTV cameras do often come handy during investigations.

What went wrong with Alka Lamba? She was apparently upset with you.

So we have set up this mechanism where the complainant has to furnish evidence before we take any action. It seems Ms Lamba was upset when we asked her to substantiate her allegations. She perhaps thought we should have summoned the person she had complained about.

Finally, are you a feminist?

No, not at all. I don’t believe in these isms. I don’t understand. All I know is I fight for women’s rights and what is right. Does that fall in the typical feminist category? I don’t know.