The long-stalled Women’s Reservation Bill was back in the spotlight on Tuesday as Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined MPs cutting across party lines in Parliament on International Women’s Day to push for its early passage, asking the government to “give us women our legitimate due”.
As the day was observed across the country to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, it saw some action on the ground when 42-year-old Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan rode to Parliament on an orange Harley-Davidson motorcycle, making a powerful statement.
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to enact the Women’s Reservation Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.
The AP government announced a number of schemes aimed at empowerment of women, including opening an exclusive toll-free helpline ‘181’ for women in distress’s Day while Hyderabad City Police announced formation of ‘Bharosa’, a support centre for providing protection to women and children subjected to violence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to say he salutes women for their accomplishments and expressed his government’s unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ while President Pranab Mukherjee said women should be given freedom to exercise choices at home and workplace.
The women MPs who spoke in Parliament also talked about allowing women’s entry into temples where they are banned, better education for girls and financial inclusiveness for women.
They got precedence to speak during an impromptu debate on women’s empowerment in the light of Modi’s call for only female MPs to address both the Houses on Tuesday.
In the Lok Sabha, Sonia, who was the first member to speak on the issue of women empowerment, took a dig at the government over a host of issues including its slogan of ‘maximum governance and minimum government’.
“Maximum governance is more than just accelerated pace of economic growth. It is also expanding the base of disagreement without inviting retribution or retaliation. Surely, maximum governance does not mean to have double standards in dealing with women’s rights.
“Surely, maximum governance also means to give us women our legitimate due -- the long awaited women’s reservation bill,” Gandhi said and told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that “we can expect in you a strong ally...”
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government is working towards evolving consensus on the Bill and expressed hope that it would succeed in this at the earliest. The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010 but got stuck in Lok Sabha due to stiff resistance by a number of parties.
Outside Parliament, Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev accused Modi of “failing to empower women” despite getting a historical mandate and asked him break his silence on his government’s stand on the women’s reservation bill.
Criticising the law in some BJP-ruled states like Haryana and Rajasthan which makes minimum educational qualification necessary to contest local elections, the Congress chief said it denied a large number of women from SC/ST groups to exercise their constitutional rights and called for “urgent legislative attention” to undo it.
Gandhi then took a dig at the government over a host of issues including its slogan of ‘maximum governance and minimum government’.
“Maximum governance is more than just accelerated pace of economic growth. It is also expanding the base of disagreement without inviting retribution or retaliation. Surely, maximum governance does not mean to have double standards in dealing with women’s rights.
“Surely, maximum governance also means to give us women our legitimate due -- the long awaited women’s reservation bill,” Gandhi said and told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that “we can expect in you a strong ally...”
Though she did not make a direct reference to the government’s crackdown on some NGOs, her reference to it was obvious as she sought giving “freedom” to the civil society, NGOs and activists.
She also referred to social evils like discrimination against girl child, foeticide and dowry and pitched for male colleagues’ cooperation in confronting these challenges.
It was Congress, she said, that had pledged itself to the woman’s voting rights when the country became independent.
The women lawmakers insisted that the lot of women has not changed much and discrimination against them continues. Some highlighted incidents of women being denied entry to temples, besides other problems like trafficking and sexual harassment.
In Rajya Sabha also, members, cutting across party lines, made a passionate plea for early passage of the Women’s Bill.
Intervening in the debate in Lok Sabha, Naidu said, “Our government is working towards evolving consensus... Hope we succeed at the earliest,” he said.
The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010 but got stuck in Lok Sabha due to stiff resistance by a number of parties.
When a member from the opposition camp wanted a concrete assurance, Naidu hit back saying “they (Congress government) could not evolve consensus in 10 years”.
He said the Modi government, meanwhile, has initiated a number of schemes for empowerment of women, including ‘beti bachao, beti padao’ (save girl child, educate girl child).
Utmost important is education of girl child, he said, adding the earlier governments have worked in this direction and the present dispensation is doing it “more effectively”.
After education, girls need to be provided with job opportunities, he said, adding that without provision of jobs, the “discrimination” against women will not end.
Another way of ensuring empowerment of women is to ensure that under the ‘Housing-for-all’ scheme, titles are registered in the name of the woman.
“We should ponder over these developments. It is not an issue of this party, that party... I do not want to politicise this. If blame is to be taken, all parties should take responsibility proportionate to the time they ruled,” he said.
