The first organisational programme to be addressed by Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, right before he formally takes charge, will be a policy workshop on gender issues organised by the Mahila Congress.
The programme will be a day-long workshop attended by State-level Mahila Morcha office-bearers here on Wednesday. Mr. Gandhi will speak towards the end of the programme.
Apart from senior advocates like Rebecca John and Malavika Rajkotia, who will speak in a session on “The gap between enactment and enforcement” of gender sensitive policy issues, Gee Imaan Semmalar of the activist group Sampoorna will speak on the Transgender Bill now before Parliament.
Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev will helm the programme. “It is significant that this would be the first organisational programme being addressed by Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, and reflects his emphasis on going forward with meaningful advocacy of gender sensitive policy making,” she said.
The meeting is also being looked at as significant because, party sources told The Hindu, women as a community need to be mobilised. “Mr. Gandhi feels that the most effective counterpoint to the RSS agenda will be the mobilisation of women who stand to lose the most in hard Hindutva cultural nationalism,” a source said.
The Modi government recently included two women Ministers, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the most powerful Cabinet sub-committee, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which may also be a reason for such a stance.