Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls’19, the major Opposition parties have been throwing their weight behind the Women’s Reservation Bill. The Congress, Biju Janata Dal(BJD) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have been pressing to pass the long-pending bill in the Parliament.
CPI(M) leader P.K. Sreemathi Teacher raised the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha. She underlined that the women representation is limited to 11.7 per cent in Lok Sabha and 11.4 per cent in Rajya Sabha. Also, the state assemblies observe the same gender imbalance. She appealed the bill to be passed immediately to ensure women’s rights of minimum representation in the highest decision-making bodies of the nation. She urged the Prime Minister and other ministers to come in support of the bill which has been pending since over 20-25 years.
She got support from several opposition parties likely BJD, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and others.
BJD’s Bhratruhari Mahtab stood in support of the demand and claimed that Odisha’s CM Naveen Patnaik has written letters to the Presidents of 27 political parties and the Chief
Ministers seeking their support for the bill. He also urged the house to find time to have a discussion in this session. Patnaik had also appealed to PM Modi to initiate the steps for the passage of the Bill.
TRS leader A.P. Jithender Reddy also stood for the bill and demanded its passed at the earliest.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi wrote to Chief Ministers of the Congress-led states asking them to get a resolution passed in their respective State Assemblies for one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
CPI(M) on Friday also staged a protest in the Parliament complex near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue over the issue.
The Women’s Reservation Bill [Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill] was first introduced in the Parliament in May 2008 by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. But later on after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014, it lapsed.
The Bills aims at reserving one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies. Also, it seeks one-third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to be reserved for the women belonging to those groups.