PATNA: At a webinar organized by TOI here on Thursday, woman representatives from three major political parties in Bihar and two civil society groups active in the state spoke out in unison that 33% reservation for women in Parliament and legislatures is the most important tool to put women in the decision-making process for the larger good of society.
The panel comprising JD(U) general secretary-cum-spokesperson Suheli Mehta, RJD spokesperson Sarika Paswan, former BJP MLC Kiran Ghai, Padmashree Sudha Verghese of Nari Gunjan, and Ranjana Das from Oxfam India, agreed that reservation would help bring more women into the mainstream political process on a sustained basis, including their increased participation in the electoral process, to pursue the issues that mattered to the women.
(Padma Shri Sudha Varghese)
Although they chose different words to put across their views, their basic demand was the same: Women should first be given 33% reservation in Parliament and state legislatures, and all the ‘obstacles’ such as the demand for ‘quota within quota’ should be put in abeyance till the basic demand was met.
(Kiran Ghai)
“First, we should get the basic thing – 33% reservation. Women from the political arena should rise above their party lines and demand it unitedly to achieve it,” said BJP representative and former MLC Kiran Ghai, adding that the “actual situation facing women is complex”.
(Ranjana Das)
This was what the panellists took to untangling as the webinar, conducted by Tara Krishnaswamy of Shakti on the behalf of TOI, progressed through one question to the other.
The moderator introduced the subject pegging it to TOI’s campaign theme ‘Aadhe Hum Aadha Hamara’ highlighting that women constituted 50% of the country’s population, and, therefore, they deserved to have proportional representation.
(Tara Krishnaswamy)
Krishnaswamy wove the webinar around questions such as why political parties had less representation of women, how women can come forward in any walk of life, and what role women politicians could play in having the 33% reservation passed in Parliament?
(Sarika Paswan)
“Women should leave aside the concerns of their parties and join hands to raise their common demand regarding the 33% reservation in Parliament and legislature,” RJD spokesperson Sarika Paswan said, adding, “The Bihar government should also take the initiative in this regard, as has been taken by the state governments of Odisha and Punjab in 2019.”
(Dr Suheli Mehta)
Ghai pointed out that housewives suffered inferiority complex, as the male members do not recognize their work at home, which remains unpaid. It was an assertion with which all other panellists agreed, besides demanding that there was the need for a change in the “male mindset that worked to protect his power and dominance at every level, including in politics.”
To their satisfaction, as Mehta said, her party had given 20% of assembly seats to women. All felt the need for 33% for women reservation in the “executive” category of the organizational posts. Further, they accepted that they had little say in election management committee, candidate selection, campaign and funding committee, and so on, and that even woman MLAs avoided speaking publicly on issues critical to women due to the pressing need to protect the “party-interests” demanded by the male members.
They also felt that parties were reluctant to promote women due to the inherent male bias that begins at home itself, even as women make budgets for the family.
The panellists stressed that the empowerment of women would be “like fresh air” in society, as had been amply exemplified by the recent rise in their literacy level and girls going to schools in large numbers. “Men will have to leave their place of dominance they have over the lives of women. Money and its handling are also a big problem. Till women themselves learn things and change their attitude, nothing will change, and men, too, should change their mindset towards women,” civil society worker Sudha Verghese said.
“Earlier, when 50% representation was given to women in PRIs, 78% of women worked on the prodding of their male relatives, but it had now come down to 50%. Things will improve further with women’s education in the future,” Ranjana Das from Oxfam said.