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Women told to seek more seats in Parliament

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, FEB. 21. With general elections due soon, political parties are in a vulnerable position and women should now use their bargaining power to get better representation in Parliament and State legislatures, the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, said here on Saturday.

Pakistan had achieved nearly 30 per cent representation for women in the Lower House of the Parliament with 73 MPs, she said.

Dr. Heptullah was addressing the valedictory of a three-day convention of women members of panchayat raj institutions from the four southern States.

The conference, the theme of which was "Reconstructing governance: the other voices", was organised by the Singamma Srinivasan Foundation, Bangalore, Karnataka Women's Information and Resource Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme, Delhi.

"Women should demand from all candidates that if elected, they would project gender issues, provide more funds for education of girls, and have more women at all levels of government," Dr. Heptullah said.

The Minister of State for Kannada and Culture, Rani Satish, presided over the function.

Maxine Olson from the UNDP said more transparency came into public spending because of women representatives in local government.

Meera Pillai, who presented a report on the convention, said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, had been persuaded to have quarterly meeting with women members of panchayat raj institutions, along with legislators, MPs, and government officials.

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