Selfie campaign aims at getting more tickets for women in Bihar

NEW DELHI: In an effort to increase participation of women in politics, Shakti, a citizen’s collective, along with other grassroots organisations in Bihar, has spearheaded an awareness campaign demanding tickets for 50% of female candidates.
Under the campaign, mukhiyas, sarpanches, and women MLAs have supported their demand for increased female representation in polls by taking a selfie and promising to advocate for the issue within their party. JDU MLA from Khagaria Poonam Devi Yadav who has voiced her support for the campaign says, “We need more women in politics. If they can work in offices and panchayats, why not in the assembly?”
There are currently 11 MLAs in Bihar with the state set to go to polls by year-end. The state pioneered 50% reservation in local bodies in 2006. There have been over 2 lakh elected women in local bodies since then, but very few make it to the Vidhan Sabha. Political parties in Bihar have been giving pitiful 9% tickets to women, fielding barely a handful of women each, in every election cycle.
Volunteers including farmers, male social workers, working women, students, civil society activists, minority and Dalit groups in Bihar. participated in the call campaign. Sakhiree Mahila Vikaas Sansthan, Jyoti Mahila Samaikhya, Bihar Ambedkar Students Forum, Gaurav Gramin Mahila Vikas Manch, Centre for Social Equity & Inclusion and others joined hands to reach out to female mukiyas, sarpanches, and female MLAs across various villages, districts and constituencies. About 50 female representatives from local bodies and 15 MLAs from different political parties have participated in the campaign so far.
Tara Krishnaswamy, the co-founder of Shakti, said, “This campaign is an effort for women's political rights with a simultaneous outreach to both local bodies and state-level elected women representatives. We hope that the parties will discuss this and ensure that these elections are genuinely representative and gender-balanced.”
In August the collective had initiated a petition campaign where 140 eminent citizens and institutions had raised the same demand.