Women’s Reservation Bill: Bharat Jagruthi to protest in Delhi on March 10

The Bharat Jagruthi foundation led by BRS MLC K Kavitha will organise a day-long sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 10, demanding to introduce the Women's Reservation Bill in the ongoing Parliament session

Hyderabad: Demanding the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the ongoing Parliament session, the Bharat Jagruthi foundation led by BRS MLC K Kavitha will organise a day-long sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 10. This would be the first major activity taken up by the foundation after its transformation from Telangana Jagruthi.

Several women’s organisations, representatives from all the 29 States and political parties supporting women’s rights and empowerment are expected to join the peaceful sit-in protest.

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Releasing a poster with regard to the Delhi protest at her residence here on Thursday, Kavitha said whenever women got an opportunity to enter into leadership roles, they had always proved themselves and hence, democracy would get better served. She reminded that though women got 33 percent reservation in urban and rural local bodies, they were waiting to get 33 per cent representation in the Parliament and the State Assemblies for the last 27 years.

The BRS legislator reminded the BJP leadership about its electoral promise to give 33 percent reservation for women during the 2014 and 2019 General Elections. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks about “Nari Shakti” from Red Fort but does nothing for women’s empowerment. As the BJP used its majority and pushed the three contentious farm laws in the Parliament, she did not see the reason why the same method was not being followed to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Kavitha pointed out that the BRS led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had already passed a resolution in support of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the State Assembly and declared that the BRS would support the Bill whenever the BJP government passes the Bill in the Parliament. Paving way for passing the bill without much opposition, she said as an alternate solution, the Centre should follow the Chief Minister’s suggestion for increasing the number of the seats in both the Houses to reserve 33 percent seats for women.

The Women’s Reservation Bill would be a step towards building a more inclusive space that has fair representation and participation of women from all walks of life. On the increasing gender parity gap and the global scenario, Kavitha said the gender parity gap in India was widening with time and if the reservation was given now, the country would be able to achieve gender parity only by 2063.

“If the government wants India to become a superpower, it cannot keep half its population (women) at home,” she said.