New Delhi, August 23
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today expressed confidence of securing support in ensuring 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state
legislatures. Even though consensus eluded the issue Dr Manmohan Singh observed: “I am confident that we will succeed as no nation can stand proud if it discriminates against any of its citizens.”
Addressing a national conference on “Women’s role in nation building — from panchayat to Parliament,” the Prime Minister noted that reservation at the panchayat level had been very encouraging even if it had not been uniformly successful all over the country. This had brought about a new army of empowered women participating in governance at the community level.
“The time has come for us to scale this experiment up to the national level,” he stressed. Pointing out that a million women are being elected to the Panchayats every five years, Dr Manmohan Singh said this large scale mobilisation of “women in the public life of our country is an unprecedented event. It is the most important political intervention aimed at the empowerment of women anywhere in the world.”
He said the national common minimum programme of the UPA government recognised the political, legal, educational and economic empowerment of women as one of the key principles of governance.
“Certainly, no society can claim to be part of the modern civilised world unless it treats its women on a par with men. The time for genuine and full empowerment of women is here and now. This is an idea whose time has come but whose realisation we must now ensure,” the Prime Minister maintained.
He said gender responsive legislation and gender responsive budgeting
initiated by his government would go a long way in making governments and governance more sensitive. “We are pursuing legislation which will provide flexibility in the industrial and services sector,” the Prime Minister explained. A Bill on the protection of women from domestic violence had been passed and changes effected in the Criminal Procedure Code and the Hindu Succession Act to empower women.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said the time had come for implementation and not just indulge in talk about women’s empowerment.
He described as unfortunate the feeling in certain quarters that empowering women would pose a challenge to them. Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board Rajani Patel said a task force would be set up to monitor the functioning of NGOs doing yeoman’s service in this field.
