Indian women poised to get parliament seats

August 24, 2005 - (News International) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday he was confident that parliament would pass a bill to set aside a third of federal and state legislature seats for women despite a storm of opposition. His comments came a day after MPs fought tooth-and-nail in parliament to oppose the draft legislation. "We are building consensus on the issue of reserving 33 per cent of seats in parliament and state legislatures for women and I am confident that we will succeed," Singh told a national women’s conference in New Delhi.

Successive Indian governments have failed to make the Women’s Reservation Bill law since it was first put forward in 1996 because of stiff opposition from politicians. But Singh said he was confident of ending the logjam.

"This large-scale mobilisation of women in the public life in our country is an unprecedented event. It is the most important intervention aimed at the empowerment of women anywhere in the world," Singh said. The bill provides for the reservation for women of a third of parliament’s elected 545-seat lower house as well as similar representation in the assemblies of India’s 29 states.

Congress premier Indira Gandhi, assassinated in 1984, was one of the world’s first female prime ministers but women’s representation in federal and state legislatures hovers around 10 per cent.

From: http://jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2005-daily/24-08-2005/world/w7.htm