India’s women to witness better days with reservation in legislature, says Kavitha

K Kavitha said with the passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill, women of the country would witness better days in the future

Hyderabad: BRS MLC K Kavitha said with the passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill, women of the country would witness better days in the future. The revolutionary Women’s Reservation Bill would pave the way for more women to enter the legislature, she said.

There were currently 78 women MPs in the Indian Parliament and with the bill, that number would reach 181. She thanked the Deve Gowda government for its efforts in 1996, Sonia Gandhi in 2010 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023 for bringing the Women’s Reservation Bill to the Parliament.

---

Delivering the keynote address at a conference organized by Bridge India, a leading public policy organization in London, on “Women’s Reservation – Women’s Participation in the Democratic Process”, Kavitha highlighted the efforts of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in passing the Women’s Reservation Bill.

She reminded that in the first assembly meetings of the newly formed Telangana State in 2014, a resolution was made to ensure that the women’s bill would be passed by the Parliament and the same was sent to the central government.

After that, BRS party MPs raised this issue in the Parliament on many occasions and the Chief Minister also wrote to the Prime Minister. However, the lack of quota for OBC women in women’s reservation is a cause for concern, she said, promising to continue the struggle for justice for OBC women.

Kavitha reminded that in almost all States barring a few, the 33 percent reservation in local bodies was already being implemented and the participation of women in local administration increased to nearly 57 percent. She said it was a matter of pride for her that in Telangana, about 55-57 percent of local body posts were occupied by women. Of those, 92 percent were from the BRS.

With women’s reservation being passed in India, all the women leaders of the country should come together to help women of other nations who have no reservations, she said.

Speakers at the event appreciated Kavitha’s efforts towards increasing the representation of women in politics. They recalled that she not only sat on a day-long hunger strike in Delhi to throw light on the need for women’s reservation but also followed it up with a round table meeting that was organized to encourage discussion on this issue across political parties. Representation of women in the country’s parliament that was around 5 percent in the 1950s had only increased to 15 percent, so far. Realizing the dream of 33 percent reservation was a big success and Kavita’s efforts to achieve it were significant, they said.

Bridge India also presented a video on Kavitha’s work on women’s reservation.