Passing the Women's Reservation bill

To:  President of India Ms Pratibha Patil

New Delhi, 12 October, 2009: Tired of government’s slow progress towards passing the women’s reservation bill, women’s groups are now resorting to unique ways of pressurising the government. In order to garner wide support from organisations and individuals across the country, the Centre for Social Research is mounting a campaign wherein it will be sending impassioned letters to the President of India to facilitate the passage of the much awaited Bill. The target is to send as many as 1 million letters from all parts of the country!

Although President Patil’s vision & efforts of making women’s empowerment a reality are yielding fruits steadily with the introduction of the 50% reservation in panchayats, much still needs to be done in terms of bringing in more gender friendly legislations in the country. Women’s organisations who had also pinned all hopes on the UPA government’s intent of passing the Women’s Reservation Bill(which was on its 100- day agenda), are wondering as to why it has again failed to see the light of the day. “These letters from all across the country will act as regular reminders to awaken the government. The campaign will reinforce the support of common man towards the empowerment of women,” says Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research.

Internet will be used effectively as a medium for garnering support. Facebook, E groups, and blogs will be used to connect with individuals and organisations from different parts of the country to support the campaign.

India’s President, Parliament Speaker and the UPA Chairperson (the most powerful politician today) are all women with many women also adorning the chief minister’s throne, and thousands others heading village panchayats. Yet all attempts to increase the fairer sex’s presence in Parliament and state legislatures have miserably failed. Disheartened with the government’s slow yielding results, women’s organisations across the country are now devising innovative ways of pressurising the government.

“It should also be noted that the President has the constitutional powers to nominate candidates to the Rajya Sabha. Therefore, we would also request her to create more space for women in the Upper House of the Parliament, till we await the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill,” adds Dr Kumari.



About Centre for Social Research (CSR):

Centre for Social Research is one of the leading Women’s Institutions working in the field of social action since 1983. CSR was founded by a group of concerned social scientists dedicated to promote the empowerment of women, deprived castes and groups. The goal of the organization is to achieve economic self-sufficiency and raise awareness on social, political and legal issues. At present, CSR has six divisions: Development and Capacity Building, Violence against Women Programme, Research, Gender Training Institute and Networking and Advocacy.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Passing the Women's Reservation bill Petition to President of India Ms Pratibha Patil was created by Center For Social Research and written by Dr Ranjana Kumari (amikumar@csrindia.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.