Bangalore: Karnataka’s Women Demand 50% Quota in Local Bodies
From Our Special Correspondent
BANGALORE, MAY 26: WHETHER the newly elected Lok Sabha with the highest number of women representatives finally succeeds in approving the historic Constitutional amendment granting 33% reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures or not, will be known in the coming months.
But, Karnataka’s women representatives in panchayat raj bodies, who already enjoy 33% reservation, have raised the demand for 50% quota in the local self-government bodies in keeping with their ratio in the total population.
Representatives of Sugrama, a state-wide Federation of elected women panchayat members, which is being formally launched on Wednesday, announced that their final aim is to earn "real power" to women and bring about "real change" in the villages by ensuring basic facilities.
"My panchayat has six women representatives out of 22. We will have greater strength when our number goes up to 11," said Renuka, Federation President, who hails from Gauribidanur in Chickaballapur district.
Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have already announced 50% share for women in panchayats, she said explaining that the Federation would be taking up an intensive campaign to educate women members of gram panchayts and empower them to stand up to political pressure from powerful men in villages or leaders of political parties.
``Our objective is to strive for the overall welfare of women. We want women to become effective and able leaders from the grassroots. The lot of women will improve only when more and more women enter public life and become MLAs and MPs ,’’ she said.
Renuka said it was shameful that many women panchayat members would not sign any document unless their husbands read and gave their green signal. It is deplorable to men running the show though without being elected and having any legal authority.``We are educating women to come out of these controls," said S. Nagarathna, Vice-President from T. Narasipura in Mysore.
Shubha Devikeri from Raichur felt there should be overall empowerment that would lead to "ordinary women coming out boldly, whether or not they are directly involved in politics."
Backed by three non-governmental organisations including Hunger Project, Sugrama has 87 taluk associations in 21 districts in the state. ``We want to spread our activities and establish units in all taluks and districts in the state to become the voice of all women panchayat representatives,’’ Renuka added.