The Hindu : Women's bill: groups plan signature campaign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

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Women's bill: groups plan signature campaign

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 19. Disappointed with the failure by the political parties to arrive at a consensus on women's reservation at the recent all-party meeting convened by the Lok Sabha Speaker, women's organisations will now launch a signature campaign to garner support for their cause. Women's groups will approach the Members of Parliament of all parties to get their support for the bill's smooth passage in Parliament.

Demanding that the bill in its present form be put to vote in Parliament in the coming session itself, the women's groups said that the Bill had not moved an inch further since, contrary to the impression sought to be created, none of the proposals made at the meeting provide a realistic alternative to the present bill.

The proposal to shift the ground of reservation from seats to party lists is no alternative as it cannot guarantee a minimum number of women in the decision making bodies. It has also been proposed that if there was a shortfall in the number of women actually elected through this system then political parties can `nominate' women to make up the numbers. This is an undemocratic proposal that will lead to the political patronage and manipulation. ``It will further marginalise women since they will not be directly elected representatives of the people and hence the proposal should be rejected outright,'' a statement issued here said today.

Describing the alternative to reduce the percentage of the quota as a dilution and diversion from the demand for the one-third of seats, the statement said that it actually proposed a reduction in the percentage of quota in the party list and not on the percentage of seats to be reserved. The proposal to add 182 seats is a non-starter and Parliament has already adopted a resolution that rules out a fresh delimitation of seats until after the next elections. What this proposal, therefore, meant was a continuation of status quo for the next six years, the statement said.

Women's organisations have also expressed their protest over the Parliamentary Affairs Minister's statement that the Government would not bring the Bill for voting until there was an agreement among all the political parties.

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