Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Plea for women's quota bill in current Parliament session

Staff Reporter

District unit of Mahila Samakhya stages dharna

STRIVING FOR EQUALITY: Women led by the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samakhya staging a protest in front of the Collectorate at Anantapur on Tuesday demanding introduction of the women's quota bill in Parliament.

ANANTAPUR: The district unit of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samakhya affiliated to the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) staged a dharna in front of the collectorate here on Tuesday demanding introduction of women's reservation bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.

Speaking at the protest, district president of Mahila Samakhya D. Shakuntala alleged that successive governments at the Centre were delaying the introduction of the bill for long citing trivial reasons. Introduction of the bill did not require consensus among the political parties.

She urged the Centre to get the bill ratified in the current session of Parliament itself. She criticised the parties, which had been advocating an increase of seats in the law-making bodies by 30 per cent to provide an equal amount of quota to women. It reflected their lack of responsibility towards women, she said.

Double loss

Such a proposal was not only impractical but it would further delay the introduction of the bill on the reservation for women in Parliament, she felt.

Limited representation of women in the law-making bodies was against natural justice when the fairer sex was making giant strides in all spheres of life along with men today, she said.

The urgency and sincerity shown by the Centre in the introduction and getting ratification of bills over liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation were found missing in the case of the bill on women's reservation, Ms. Shakuntala alleged.

She called upon women to take up a movement for achieving the quota in the male-dominated society. She felt that a united struggle by women cutting across party lines would alone realise the reservation.

Later, a delegation of the Samakhya submitted a memorandum to DRO M. Sudarshan Reddy.

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