A total of 12 Bills, sans the controversial GST legislation, will be taken up – seven in the Lok Sabha and five in the Rajya Sabha. “We are not perks of your jobs”, she said while saluting women like the mothers of Nirbhaya and Rohith Vemula who are fighting for rights.
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Criticising the law in some BJP-ruled states like Haryana and Rajasthan which makes mimimum educational qualification necessary to contest local elections, the Congress chief said it denied a large number of women from SC/ST groups to exercise their constitutional rights and called for “urgent legislative attention” to undo it. But at the same time, some women MPs also said that passage of the Women’s Bill was not the only solution, but a part of the bigger scheme of things required to uplift the stature of women in the country.
President Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari had pointed out the poor representation of women in Parliament and its various committees during the recently concluded National Conference of Women Legislators.
“The IWD is a day to celebrate the acts of courage and determination of ordinary women in India and throughout the world”.
“Most effective solution for women empowerment is not only economic growth but their participation in decision-making”.
While the first week was a near washout especially in Rajya Sabha, the second week was somewhat quite in the Upper House, however the Lok Sabha has functioned without any major disruptions ever since the session started.
The financial and legislative agenda to be taken up during the week in the Lok Sabha include the Enemy Property (Amendment & Validation) bill, 2016 to replace an Ordinance, the Adhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Orders (Amendment) bill, 2016.
Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla said she, as a minister, can not give zero hour notice but would want to speak on the issue.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the NDA government is sensitive to the problem of crimes against women and is working for their safety, as he extended his greetings on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Members cutting across party lines in Parliament, today demanded passage of Women Reservation Bill.
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The Nizamabad MP said that the Telangana Government has constituted “She Teams” to ensure safety of women. “Get it passed, you have the power in the Lok Sabha”, she said. “Instead, what we have is the worst kind of tokenism, with the PM calling for only women MPs to speak on March 8”, she added.
