BHUBANESWAR: As the political temperature heats up in the State ahead of 2019 elections, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik shot off another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to take the leadership in initiating necessary steps for passing the Bill regarding reservation of 1/3 seats for women in Parliament and State Legislatures.
“Empowerment of women is the empowerment of the Nation. No household, no society, no state, no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women,” Naveen said in the letter. Stating that the principle of gender equality is enshrined in our Constitution, Naveen said, “The country will move forward with much greater momentum only if the other half of our population, our mothers, sisters and daughters, have a role in the highest decision making bodies of our states and our country.”
Odisha is a pioneering State so far as empowerment of women is concerned, he said and added in the early 1990s Biju Patnaik, for the first time in the country, brought women to the realm of political decision making by reserving 1/3 seats in panchayats and urban local bodies for them. “Besides, he had also implemented equal wages for both men and women to ensure gender equality and dignity of labour,” he said. In 2011, Odisha Government enhanced the reservation for women in panchayats and urban local bodies to 50 per cent, the Chief Minister said and added, this decision has empowered women of Odisha and encouraged them to join the mainstream of development process.
He also informed the Prime Minister about the unanimous resolution passed in the Odisha Assembly to provide for one third reservation in Parliament as as well as State Legislatures. Stating that Mahatma Gandhi always spoke of gender equality and empowerment of women in society, he said taking a historic decision to empower women in the country would be the finest tribute to the Father of the Nation on his 150th birth anniversary. The Chief Minister assured full support of Odisha Government in providing women their rightful place in the decision- making process.