Women’s collective voices demand for reservation bill

NEW DELHI: In the run-up to parliament’s winter session next month, an alliance of more than 1,600 women’s organisations again demanded that the Lok Sabha, where the ruling BJP has a majority, pass the Women’s Reservation Bill.

The Rajya Sabha had passed the Bill, which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies, in 2010 but it is yet to clear the Lok Sabha.

The National Alliance for Women’s Reservation Bill said the National Democratic Alliance government with 366 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha is “enough to fulfil” their objective which it said was also in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election manifesto.

“We demand the bill’s passage in the Winter Session of Parliament. There is no question that a consensus does not exist among political parties for its passage.

“It is the government’s responsibility to get this bill passed and to fulfil the promise they made in the election manifesto.

“We face a now-or-never situation, and the government should now lead by example,” Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research, said in the statement.

The bill has among its supporters Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to take advantage of the BJP majority in the Lok Sabha to get the bill passed. — IANS