Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji
Panaji, Aug 30: The Coalition for Women’s Reservation with Inclusion and Federalism has urged the Goa government to move a resolution during the upcoming Assembly session seeking the immediate implementation of 33% reservation for women in the state Legislative Assembly.
The three-day monsoon session of the Goa Assembly is scheduled to be held from August 31 to September 2. The coalition has called for a resolution urging the Centre to introduce a Constitutional Amendment to delink women’s reservation from seat expansion, the Census and delimitation, allowing the quota to be implemented without further delay.
Addressing a press conference at Azad Maidan in Panaji on Sunday, coalition members said the reservation could be implemented within the existing 40-member Goa Assembly. They argued that this would enable Goan women to benefit immediately and could make Goa the first state in the country to implement one-third reservation for women in its Legislative Assembly.
The coalition comprises women’s organisations, activists, academics, professionals and women who have contested elections at the Panchayat, Zilla Parishad and Assembly levels.
Activist Auda Viegas, who has contested municipal, Assembly and parliamentary elections, said women continue to face major structural barriers in electoral politics.
“Unless we are part of the electoral process, nothing will change,” Viegas said, stressing the need for reservation as well as financial support for women candidates.
She said her experience had shown that women found it difficult to break through without reserved constituencies and adequate support. Election funding, she said, was an essential factor in enabling women to contest elections effectively.
Viegas also alleged that women candidates frequently face character assassination and personal attacks during election campaigns, including the use of irrelevant personal issues to discourage them from continuing in politics.
She called for proper financial support for women candidates and greater encouragement for them to participate in politics on an equal footing with men.
Angela D’Souza, who represents marginalised OBC communities and the fishing community, said vulnerable women needed greater representation in policymaking.
She highlighted the disruption of traditional fishing livelihoods because of changes in rivers, development activities around ports and encroachment by large businesses.
The coalition has demanded a 33% sub-reservation within the OBC quota for OBC fisherwomen, particularly women from Kharvi and boat-owning fishing communities. It has also sought representation for single women, women from Hindu and Muslim communities and transgender persons.
Dr Radhika Desai said women must be physically present in institutions where decisions and policies are made if issues affecting women are to receive adequate attention.
She also expressed concern about the possible impact of future delimitation on Goa’s parliamentary representation, pointing out that Goa is a small state.
Desai said that if delimitation was based strictly on population and seats were expanded accordingly, Goa could face a significant disadvantage. She opposed decisions regarding reserved constituencies being taken solely at the Centre and called for a state-level mechanism involving marginalised women.
The coalition has proposed a mechanism at the state level involving ruling and opposition representatives, election officials and women’s organisations to determine the constituencies to be reserved.
Advocate Caroline Colaco said the coalition had met almost all Goa MLAs and circulated a draft resolution seeking a Constitutional Amendment to delink women’s reservation from seat expansion, the Census and delimitation.
She said such delinking was essential to ensure that women’s reservation could be implemented immediately instead of being delayed by future exercises relating to population and constituency boundaries.
The coalition has also sought sub-quotas within the 33% reservation for vulnerable groups, including OBCs, nomadic tribes, women with disabilities, single women and queer women.
It has further demanded state-backed election funding for women candidates belonging to vulnerable and marginalised communities, arguing that lack of financial support makes it extremely difficult for such candidates to participate meaningfully in elections.
Advocate Albertina Almeida said the coalition had approached ministers and MLAs across party lines and claimed that legislators broadly agreed on the need for women’s reservation.
She said some ruling party MLAs, however, had expressed concerns about pursuing immediate implementation.
The coalition was also informed that the short Assembly session does not have a scheduled Private Members’ Day, creating a procedural difficulty in introducing the resolution through that route. Almeida said the group had approached the State Commission for Women, which had agreed to discuss its draft resolution.
Despite the procedural hurdles, the coalition expressed hope that the government would find a legislative mechanism to bring the issue before the House.
The coalition has opposed any proposal to make expansion of the Goa Assembly from 40 to 60 seats a prerequisite for implementing women’s reservation, maintaining that the 33% quota can be implemented within the existing 40-member House.
The demand comes amid renewed national debate over the implementation of 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also called on political parties earlier this month to support implementation of the quota as swiftly as possible.
The coalition said women had already waited too long for adequate political representation and that Goa should not have to wait another five years for the opportunity to implement the reservation.