The Hindu : Put Bill to vote, women's groups urge PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 21, 2003

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Put Bill to vote, women's groups urge PM

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 20. The women's groups have, once again, appealed to the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to put the Women's Reservation Bill to vote since it had been approved by a Select Committee of Parliament and had the required support to ensure its passage.

The provocation came after his speech during the no-confidence motion in Parliament and from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day where he made a specific reference to the double-member constituency proposal to reserve one-third of seats for women.

"The double-member constituency can be acceptable only if all seats in Parliament and State Assemblies are declared to be double member.

In that case there will be no discrimination, nor will there be two classes of MPs and nor will any one party get the advantage of getting two members elected in the place of one,'' the women's groups told Mr. Vajpayee in a letter sent to him today.

Rejecting the proposal, the women's groups described it as "insulting" and drew his attention that none of the organisations, involved for at least the last decade in the struggle to increase women's representation in decision-making bodies, supported the double-member constituency proposal as an alternative to the one-third reservation of seats provided for in the present Bill.

Pointing out that no women elected on such reservation would have the right to represent her constituency independently, she would have to do so along with another member. However, all other unreserved seats would be single member. This was rank discrimination against women. Instead of addressing the discrimination against women in the political sphere, this proposal would add another dimension to it, it was said in the letter.

The women felt that the proposal would create two classes within MPs. One class who would have the privilege of representing their constituencies independently and the other class who would not have the right to do so. "Since only women reserved seats will be double member, more women will be denied of the right to independently represent their constituencies than men. If 180 seats are made double member then the number of men will increase while women will get only 25 per cent as opposed to the present Bill that gives women 33 per cent,'' the letter said.

The letter has been signed by Brinda Karat (All-India Democratic Women's Association), Vina Mazumdar (Centre for Women's Development Studies), Mohini Giri (Guild of Services), Jyotsana Chatterjee (Joint Women's Programme), Syeda Hameed (Muslim Women's Front), Sehba Faroqui (National Federation of India Women), Mary Khemchand (Young Women's Christian Association of India), Bulu Sareen (Forces), Ranjana Kumari (Joint Action For Women), Suman Krishnakant (Mahila Dakshata Samiti) and Aparna Basu (All-India Women's Conference).

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