North India, Parliament still not conducive for Women’s Quota: Sharad Pawar

Pune, Sept 18th, 2022: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday remarked that the “mentality” of North India and the Parliament is still not conducive enough to provide Women’s Reservation in Lok Sabha and state Legislative assemblies.

Pawar was speaking at a program organized by the Pune Doctors’ Association where he and his daughter Supriya Sule were invited.

He was replying to a question on the Women’s Reservation Bill, which aims to reserve 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women which is yet to be passed, and whether this shows the country is still not mentally ready to accept the women leadership.

“The ‘mansikta’ (mentality) of Parliament, especially of north India, has not been conducive (on this issue). I can recall that when I was the Congress Lok Sabha member, I used to talk about the issue of reservations for women in Parliament. Once after completing my speech, I turned back and saw that majority of MPs from my party got up and left. This means even for people from my party, it was not digestible,” he said.

The NCP chief urged all parties to keep trying to get the bill passed and present women with the opportunities they deserve.