On 3rd April, Amity University, Noida, witnessed a panel discussion on Women’s Reservation Bill and its passage in the Lok Sabha. This was held in collaboration with the Joint Women’s Programme. Eminent personalities from National Alliance for Reservation Bill graced and supported this event.
These include Dr Jyotsna Chatterji (Director and Secretary of Joint Women’s Programme), Dr. Ranjana Kumari (Director, Centre for Social Research), Ms. Annie Raja (Leader, National Federation of Indian Women), Ms. Kalpana David (Senior Member, YWCA), Mr H.K. Dua (eminent journalist and former Rajya Sabha member), Dr. Bijayalaxmi Nanda (Professor, University of Delhi) and Ms. Vimlesh Sharma (Ex Panchayat Leader and President of Panchayat Leaders Collective).
The bogey of merit selection hasn’t worked to get women into parliament. https://t.co/rN7xsBihul
— Time For #33Percent (@Time33Percent) April 3, 2017
This event was held on the day when political parties declared their list of candidates for Delhi MCD elections, to be held on April 23rd. A total of 272 seats are up for grabs, and as of today the number of female candidates nominated by the four major parties are:
BJP: 117
Congress: 135
Aam Aadmi Party: 124
Swaraj Abhiyan:23
As we had earlier posted, this year, a historic number of seats have been reserved for women in the MCD elections, which is a heartening aspect of the elections.
The Alliance for Women’s Reservation Bill (Bill) has been reaching out to different sections of citizens, in an attempt to gather support for their campaign to urge the Government of India to Pass this all Important Bill at the earliest. Earlier in the year, we took part in a rally organized by DMK, and also organized a press conference on this issue.
In our view, women reaching positions of power, are blocked by patriarchal mindset and double standards. We feel that women must unite to demand action on the WRB, which is the longest pending bill in the history of Independent India for the last 21 years. The global average of women in parliament is 22.40%, and India ranks 103rd place out of 140 countries, with a 12% representation of women in Parliament. The figure is even lower for State Assemblies, with 9% of female representation.
