Jeypore: Reaching out to the huge constituency of women voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Friday promised passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, in limbo for the last nine years since being cleared by the Rajya Sabha, if his party is voted to power.
Gandhi promised that if Congress was voted to power in Odisha, its government would provide for free education for women at all levels, including in medical and engineering colleges.
Interacting with women on the International Women’s Day, Gandhi exhorted them to fight for “space” in every sphere of life as the country cannot progress without their effective and equal participation.
“You must fight for your space and don’t consider yourself lesser than a man. Women should fight for due place – be it the Assembly, Lok Sabha or the business field,” he said responding to a query by a woman delegate at the conclave.
He asked men to work towards securing for women their due place in society. “There is an urgent need to provide quota for women in State Assemblies and LS to ensure their empowerment. Congress will do it if it is voted to power,” he said, calling Women’s Reservation Bill an effective instrument for their empowerment. The 108th Constitution (amendment) Bill, which envisages 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and State Assemblies, was brought by the then UPA government in 2008 and passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. Its passage was one of the promises made by the BJP in its election manifesto for the 2014 general elections. Apart from the BJP and the Congress, several parties including the Left, NCP, AIADMK and DMK have backed the legislation but a law for women’s reservation in these bodies remains as elusive as ever.
Gandhi said women should participate more and more in politics, and referred to how they had benefited from quotas in panchayati raj institutions in some states. The Congress president, whose party has been relegated to the margins in Odisha politics, deplored that there were only two women ministers in the state. The Congress leader claimed though eight women were raped in Odisha on an average every day, only seven accused were convicted in a year because of alleged lack of concern of the government.
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