Hyderabad: Concluding the six-hour strike in support of the Women’s Reservation Bill, BRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday said that she will approach the President of India in regard to the Bill passage in the upcoming parliament sessions.
She said that signatures were collected in support of the bill from various political party representatives and organisations. “We will take signatures collected in support of the bill to the President. I request madam President to take up this issue,” she said.
Kavitha said that the issue of the Women’s Reservation Bill does not pertain to only one person or one state and that it is the whole country’s issue.
“How can India grow if one-half of its population is kept outside? How can a bird fly with one wing? Both men and women need equal representation,” she said.
“I feel elated to have an opportunity to take this movement forward. I promise the women of India that we will continue this protest until the bill is introduced and passed,” she said, adding today’s hunger strike is just the beginning and the protest will continue across the country.
Kavitha further said it is a historic moment to have a full majority government at the Centre. “We demand that the BJP government introduces this bill, we will bring all the political parties together and will try supporting you in Parliament,” she added.
She thanked all the political parties, organisations, and individuals that were a part of the strike.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, who inaugurated the strike programme at Jantar Mantar here, also demanded that the Modi government should bring this bill in this session of Parliament.
Among leaders present at the strike were Shyam Rajak (RJD), Seema Shukla (SP), NCP spokesperson, Telangana Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy as well as state Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod. Women leaders from Andhra Pradesh were also present.
The bill, which seeks to reserve 33 percent seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women, was initially introduced in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996, by the United Front government.
The Vajpayee government pushed for the bill in Lok Sabha but it still wasn’t passed.
However, the UPA-I government, led by Congress, again introduced it in May 2008 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha but it was referred to a standing committee. In 2010, it was passed in the House and transmitted finally to the Lok Sabha. However, the bill lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha. Since then, the bill has been lying in cold storage.
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