Cong MLA: Give women more seats

Rachana Ramesh | NT

Bengaluru: Congress legislator from Jayanagar Sowmya Reddy has demanded adequate representation of women in the legislature and government jobs. She has also demanded immediate passage of the Women Reservation Bill by the Centre.

The Congress MLA’s demand for adequate representation for women assumes significance in the backdrop of preparations by various political parties to select the ‘right candidate’ for the ensuing crucial assembly elections in Karnataka, scheduled for this year. Reddy’s demand came at a talk organised here by ‘Political Shakti’- a non-partisan group working for ensuring that political parties give better representation to women in their respective organisations.

The talk was centred around the subject of increasing political representation of women beyond tokenism. Sowmya Reddy had earlier sought to move a private members bill in the last session of the Karnataka legislative assembly seeking reservation for women in the legislature and government jobs. But it did not evoke any positive response from the government.

Elaboration on the objective behind mooting the said private member’s bill, Sowmya, the only women representative from Bengaluru said, “The kind of issues we (women) deal with are different. Our opinions are different. This is precisely why we need representation.”

The Congress MLA further pointed out that the representation of women was fairly good in municipalities and Panchayats due to reservations earmarked for gender in these specific domains. She asserted that women should be given reservation in government sector jobs, in both full-time and contractual work.