Editorial
Direct election of women to parliament
Reserved seats do not empower
RIGHTS groups have, for years, been advocating direct election of women to parliament. According to a five-month nationwide survey conducted earlier this year, 85 percent of the country's population, too, endorse this.
While the number of reserved seats for women has increased from 15 in 1972 to the current 50, people believe it has failed to ensure gender equality and political empowerment of women. In order to truly empower them, they opine that political parties should nominate women for general seats and reserve 33 percent of executive committee posts for them within the parties.
It has long been the concern of women's rights activists that women in reserved seats serve little more than an ornamental function in parliament, filling the quota for a seemingly gender-sensitive political system. Women indirectly elected, however, are often treated as 'second class citizens', with little recognition among and accountability to, the people. Their sole purpose is to endorse the decisions of their parties with little say of their own. For women to be politically empowered, they must have the people's mandate to fulfil the people's needs and wants. Their power must be derived not from their parties but from the people who vote those parties into power.
The people have given their verdict regarding the place, or desired place, of women in our political system. It is now up to the political parties to fulfil their demands.
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