The Hindu : National : “Mulayam Singh’s logic is faulty”

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“Mulayam Singh’s logic is faulty”

Special Correspondent

Women’s organisations criticise his statement on women’s reservation Bill

Discrimination not between groups of women but between men and women
Bill stonewalled by SP members under one pretext or another

NEW DELHI: Women’s organisations have strongly criticised the statement issued by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh accusing the government of rushing the Women’s Reservation Bill deceitfully and said that its passage would ‘change the character’ of Parliament for the worse.

Mr. Singh had said provisions of the Bill would exclude representatives of the poor and farming communities and that the record of women in the panchayats and local bodies had proven that they were not capable of playing an independent role.

In a joint statement issued here on Thursday, women’s organisations said the truth of the matter is that Mr. Yadav’s logic is faulty on all counts. Far from the Bill’s passage being ‘rushed,’ it has been stalled for 11 years. Since 1996, the Bill has been stone-walled by Samajwadi Party members and other opponents under one pretext or another.

As far as the change for the worse in the character of Parliament and exclusion of the poor and of farming communities from Parliament are concerned, the experience not only of other countries but even of our own is completely contrary to this, the statement said.

In our country, of the 50 women MPs, 60 per cent belong to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Classes and minority communities; in the State Assemblies, representation of these sections among elected women is even higher. The discrimination is not between different groups of women but between men and women since very few women are given party ticket to contest elections, the statement said.

Positive role

As far as women representatives in the panchayati raj institutions and local bodies are concerned, in a very short period of time, elected women have played such a positive role that they now occupy more than 40 per cent of the total seats in many States.

On the question of “quota within a quota,” women’s groups have said they would like to point out that neither Mr. Singh nor any other leader had ever brought a proposal to give reservation to different sections of society, including religious minorities to be debated and decided upon in Parliament.

The signatories to the statement include the All-India Democratic Women’s Association, the All-India Women’s Conference, the Guild of Services, the Joint Women’s Organisation and the National Federation of Indian Women.

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