A panel of women activists have started an online campaign urging the voters in Kerala to vote for NOTA wherever women candidates are not fielded.
Social media
The campaign that has started through social media on Monday points out that even though women constitute half of the total population as well as the voters, even the popular political parties have not fielded many women as candidates in the forthcoming polls to the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
“More than 70 per cent of the women in the State are voters. But their representation in the assembly is less than 5 per cent.
As per the list of candidates published by the political parties in the State for the forthcoming polls, there are very few women candidates.
Also most of the seats offered to women are those in which the said party did not have much expectations of winning,” activist Divya Diwakaran, one of those spearheading the campaign said.
All the successive governments in the history of the State have been cheating the women with respect to the women’s reservation bill, she said. It is high time women themselves respond against this injustice that is part of a deliberate conspiracy to keep women away from authoritative positions, she added.
The main slogan of the campaign is that “If you are not ready to field 50 percent women candidates, we are not ready to vote. Our vote is for NOTA.”
Positive response
The campaign has already gained positive response from various quarters with scriptwriter Deedi Damodaran and activists like M. Sulfath, N.V. Vinaya and Sudha Manjeri expressing their support.
NOTA (None of the above) is an option provided by the Election Commission of India for voters.
Black cross
The NOTA option will be marked on the voting machine through a symbol that consists of a black cross on a ballot sheet.
