India News | Women Need to Be in Decision Making Bodies: NCW Chief Rekha Sharma

Hyderabad, Jan 12 (PTI) Stressing the need for presence of women in decision making bodies,National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Tuesdaysaid political parties offered them tickets for elections only if they have 'connections' witha male politician.

Women need to get into decision making bodies and Parliament and legislatures, she said in her keynote address virtuallyin a webinar on 'Awareness Campaign for Eliminating Gender based Violence organised by the Centre for Women Studies of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) here.

"Otherwise, we will just be playing lip service... Yes, there are women who are in the good Ministries, but they are very few," she added. The NCW chief said parties would not want to give tickets to women as they fear women will lose in elections. "But they can give (ticket to) a person who doesnt have a good standing in society... a man who has got charges against him and they can give tickets to them but not a woman," she said.

Even if a woman managed to get a party ticket, she had to be connected to a man in politics so that her face would be there but somebody else would be doing the work on her behalf, Sharma lamented.

Referring to the long pending women's reservation bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent of seats in Parliament and state legislature for women, she said political parties speak about the quota but it was yet to materialise.

"No party has given us 33 per cent (reservation). We are 50 per cent mind you and still for 33 per cent we are begging," she said.

Sharma said gender equality can be achievedonlywhen womenwere madeaware of their rights.

"There are many laws forsafeguarding women, however,they are not going to change society unless we bring change in our own family, she said. MANUUs Incharge Vice-Chancellor Prof S M Rahmatullah saidincidents of gender based violence were still happening. "weare compelledtoconductawareness programmes,this is a shame for us.

He advised women to assert their rightsand also emphasised on inclusion of values in the curriculum,a release from MANUU said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)