The Hindu : National : Women MPs call on Arjun Singh

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Wednesday, Jul 14, 2004

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National

Women MPs call on Arjun Singh

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 13 . The Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Arjun Singh, today assured a delegation of women Members of Parliament and representatives of the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) that the legislation for prevention of domestic violence would be placed before Parliament in the current session.

The delegation apprised him of the changes that had been recommended by the women's organisations in the original bill moved by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government. ``Several other issues including the need to expand the detoxification of textbooks by adding gender dimension were also discussed with him,'' the AIDWA general secretary, Brinda Karat, said. The Minister assured them that gender approach in textbooks would be examined.

The delegation pointed out the negative role of certain members of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in trying to sabotage the functioning of the Women's Studies Centres in various universities by changing their agenda. They also expressed their disappointment with the budgetary allocations for women and child development programmes. The delegation included women MPs from Left parties — Sarala Maheshwari, Chandrakala Pande, Sathi Devi and Jyotirmoy Sikdar apart from Ms. Karat, Kalindi Deshpande, Kirti Singh, Asha Lata and Indu Agnihotri of AIDWA.

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