Without training, quota won’t help

Women MLAs in the state assembly have asserted that the 50% quota will not be sufficient if women are not trained on handling power and the administration.

Of the 11women MLAs, the four who spoke in the state assembly while the Bill was being discussed said that unless women are educated about their rights and powers, they cannot be effective administrators. Senior member and Peasants and Workers Party MLA Meenakshi Patil said, “Even today, women who are in the local bodies are not mature enough to exercise their rights and duties. The administration around them tends to neglect them due to this illiteracy. I propose to the government to offer them training at its administrative institute, Yashada,” she said.

BJP MLA Pankaja Munde demanded imposing of a minimum qualification for the women candidate while giving them reservation. “If illiterate women are elected in the local bodies, they will become ‘rubber stamps’ in the hands of their husbands. There should be a condition of minimum educational qualification of Std XII,” she said.

Madhuri Meesal of the BJP said that male counterparts in politics try to assassinate the character of the women they contest against, and that the government should take serious note of this.

She even demanded the candidature of the male contestant be cancelled for such attempts.

Talking about dynastic rule, Congress MLA and daughter of a former chief minister, Praniti Sushilkumar Shinde, said, “I don’t think the quota will encourage dynastic politics. In fact, the increase in quota will give more opportunities to the women from all walks of life. We live in a very powerful democracy and the campaign for the Lokpal Bill has proved it. If the candidate contesting is not capable enough, the voters will not elect him or her.”