Bharat Jagruthi Round Table: Opposition demands Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament

Political parties demanded for "quota within quota" for women to ensure 33 per cent reservation and representation from all classes of the society

Hyderabad: Leaders from 13 Opposition parties, who attended a round-table conference organised by the Bharat Jagruthi in New Delhi on Wednesday, unanimously demanded introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. Some political parties demanded for “quota within quota” for women to ensure 33 per cent reservation and representation from all classes of the society.

Several Members of Parliament from 13 political parties including the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, JMM, DMK, RJD, Samajwadi Party, CPI, Shiv Sena, AAP, RLD, RSP (Kerala), CPM, VCK Party and Azad Samaj Party, joined the discussion on the way forward for the Women’s Reservation Bill.

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CPI MP Binoy Viswam, DMK MP T Sumathy, SP MP ST Hasan, JMM MP Mahua Manji, RJD MP Manoj Jha, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, AAP MP Raghav Chadha and RSP MP NK Premachandran were among those who spoke at the meeting, which was attended by representatives from several civil and women organisations, farmers union leaders and students.

Some of the parties, including the SP and the RJD, demanded that there should be a quota for women from backward classes and scheduled castes within the legislation seeking to reserve one-third of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.

Speaking at the round table, Kavitha said she and the BRS firmly believed that along with reservation for women, work should also be done on “quota within quota”. For overall development and growth of the country and society, women should be given a bigger role in decision making. The message is clear from this platform that political parties, particularly from the Opposition, are in support of the Women’s Reservation Bill and it is the government which is not taking any initiative, she said.

Participating in the discussion, RJD MP Manoj Jha and SP MP ST Hasan raised the demand for reservation within reservation for women in Lok Sabha. “We totally support the Women’s Reservation Bill, but there should be reservation for women from backward, scheduled castes within this reservation,” Hasan said, a view also shared by Jha and leaders from other parties. Jha suggested a common strategy for Opposition parties to raise issues inside the Parliament as well as build mass movement on the streets.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the founders of the Constitution believed in the representation of women with the right to vote. However, on many relevant subjects, women were denied their rights. CPI MP Binoy Biswam termed Kavitha’s initiative as a movement and felt that the patriarchal tendencies had come in the way of the Women’s Reservation Bill. RLD Women’s Wing president Pratibha Singh and leader Bhupinder Chaudhary, echoed the sentiment of empowering women and most importantly the women in the rural belts who are unaware of the Bill itself.

JMM MP Mahua Maji expressed concern that even as India was celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the representation of women in the Parliament was “abysmally low”. AAP MP Raghav Chaddha said the BJP had a clear majority in the House which should be put to good use by bringing reforms and bills of greater good. VCK MP Thol Tirumavalan and DMK MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian asserted the need for women’s participation in strategic decision making and termed any delay as grave injustice to women of the country.

Farmer union Leaders Gurnam Singh Charuni and Rajewal among others, affirmed that women’s participation during the farmers protest played a key role that later forced the union government to roll back the three contentions Farm Laws.