More elected women bodes well: President

President Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari on Saturday made a strong pitch for passage of the women’s reservation bill before Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the National Conference of Women Legislators. While Mr Mukherjee asked, “How can women can be empowered without representation,” Mr Ansari said: “All political parties need to extend their support to ensure that the Constitution amendment bill to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies is not delayed further.”

Addressing the conference, Mr Mukherjee said: “Today, women constitute more than 40 per cent of the elected representatives in panchayats. In some states, the representation of women in panchayats is more than 50 per cent. The consistent increase in representation of women in the local bodies bodes well for further empowerment of women in Indian society.” The President expressed the view that without increase in their number in legislative bodies, women cannot play their due role in nation-building.

He recollected his own experience as a parliamentarian and of an old colleague, Sushma Swaraj, when hectic efforts were made during the last Lok Sabha to implement the proposal for reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures. He said that parties across the political spectrum needed to ponder the imperative of making sufficient representation of women.

The vice-president said: “If we see the track record of six national parties in fielding women candidates during the last general election in 2014, we find that out of a total of 1,591 candidates fielded by them, only 146 constituting 9.17 per cent were women. This is certainly not encouraging.”

“Besides, the respective political parties must broadbase their nomination while nominating their women members to the committees (parliamentary), statutory bodies as also while selecting speakers to participate in the debates in the House on other areas of public concern. The leaders and whips of parties in the House need to overcome their own gender bias in engaging the women members in different parliamentary roles,” he said.

Above all, women members themselves need to show their interest and contribute meaningfully to the debates,” Mr Ansari said.

Mr Ansari said increase in women representation in local bodies has not led to commensurate increase of women members in legislatures, both at the Centre and states.

“Today, our Parliament’s gender profile is woefully unbalanced, with women constituting only 12 per cent of the total membership. As such, the average number of women members in Parliament has never been more than 12 per cent since the first Lok Sabha. In the states too, the average share of women legislators is only nine per cent in the Legislative Assemblies and only six per cent in Legsilative Councils. This does not compare favourably with global trends,” Mr Ansari said.

The V-P pointed out how there are just two women members in three financial committees (of Parliament) out of 74 members.

While the Committees on Estimates has two women ,members from the Lok Sabha,there is none in the Committees on Public Account and Public Underakings from both Houses.

The department related standing committee on finance does not have a single women member while the committee on Railways has only one.The committee on Home Affirs has got two women members whereas the committee on Defence has four. In all,there are seven women members in these four committees out of their total strength 124 members,thus constituting approximately six per cent,he said.

He said while the committee on security in parliament complex does not have any woman member other thqan the Speaker as its chairperson,the 30 member joint committee on insolvency and bankruptcy code,2015,has only one woman member.

Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan while welcoming the delegates and dignitaries, said that the development of the country depends on the development of States, hence this adds to the responsibility of the State Legislatures. She emphasised that the conference is about how and in what way women legislators can proactively and productively contribute towards national welfare and development.