UN Report Supports Women Quota in Indian Parliament

Bangalore: India needs to pull up it socks and upgrade the ratio of women in lower parliament. As per a study in ‘Gender Equality in Elected Office in Asia Pacific’, it shows India in a tough spot, where the number of women representatives in the lower house of parliament is only 11percent, reported Saptarishi Dutta for IndiaRealTime. The report presented by the United Nations Development Program, which compares the ratio of countries in Asia Pacific.

There are some who support and consider the empowerment of women in politics in India. Relatively, the upper parliament passed the women’s reservation bill on 9^th March 2010, which was strongly opposed by the lower house and not voted for. The bill was proposed to amend the constitution of India to reserve 33 percent of all seats for women in the lower house of the parliament and in all legislative assemblies.

The idea was formulated in 1993, when a random calling by constitutional amends reserved one third of the village council position in gram panchayat for women. The council took care of the public infrastructure, water, sanitation, roads and other social welfares.

Even though, the steps taken to increase the number of women in politics seems drastic with reservations, it is just to sets equality of sexes and aid the empowerment of women in India. As to quotes Brinda Karat on this, a member from the Communist Party of India and a longtime campaigner for women’s rights, spoke for many when she said: “The bill will change the culture of the country, because women today are still caught in a cultural prison. We have to fight stereotypes every day,” as reported by Nilanjana S. Roy for the New York Times Asia Pacific.