HYDERABAD: At a time when women representation in politics is at an all time low in Telangana, women’s groups are demanding more from their MPs. In the run up to Lok Sabha elections, a group of women activists under the banner “Vote for Women” have dug up data on Members of Parliament from Telangana to analyse how vocal and sensitive they were in bringing up issues of gender to the table of Lok Sabha. It is worth mentioning that at present Telangana has only one woman parliamentarian in Nizamabad MP K Kavitha. An analysis of performance of 17 MPs during their five-year term found that a total of around 80 to 85 questions were raised by Telangana MPs.
While on an average, most MPs asked about five to seven questions relating to women, Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar and Zahirabad MP BB Patil bettered the others raising over 13 and 11 questions respectively. Ch Malla Reddy, the former Malkajgiri MP and current Minister for Women Development and Child Welfare Department, asked about eight questions.The questions and debates analysed by the activists were on issues plaguing women’s rights like workplace harassment, sex determination and maternity benefit. They also looked into the passing of crucial bills relating to women and their representation.
“We undertook this process to highlight how male politicians come with an inherent male privilege and fail to understand the agony and issues of half the population. Despite so many laws, the problem still persists which highlights something needs to be done by bringing more women into this position of power,” noted Varsha Bharghavi, national organiser of #IWillGoOut and the activist who started this political awareness campaign. Some of the notable names in the political domain of Telangana who were analysed fared moderately on the gender index. For instance Konda Vishweshwar Reddy asked 230 questions of which eight were on women issues. Of the 58 debates he was part of, one was on women/transgender issues.
Need for change
On the other hand, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi took part in four debates on women out of 57 debates he was part of while seven of 719 questions he raised were related to women’s issues. In the same tune, a look on Kavitha Kalvakuntla’s performance in the Parliament on women’s issues showed she raised about six questions on women’s issues and partook in one debate. Activists say that both regional and national parties must invest in bringing more women on board. “The fact that we only have one Kavitha Kalvakuntla fighting for more women representation is what we must change,” added Varsha.
Among the 17 MPs, only B Vinod Kumar raised the highest number of questions on women issues, ranging from relaxation for widows, reservations in IIT to maternity benefits. However, only 13 out of 540 questions he raised were related to these issues. Activists say that ideally, since every legislation or bill has a gender aspect, at least half the questions one raises must have be for women. One of the worst performing MPs in terms of making no noise on gender in the Parliament was BJP’s Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and TRS’ Warangal MP P Dayakar.
Kavitha calls for gender equality
At a time when inequality is reigning in the common public sphere, TRS MP K Kavitha called for gender equality while addressing the UN Global Compact Network India’s ‘Gender Equality Summit 2019’ in New Delhi on Friday. The MP from Nizamabad, who spoke on ‘Preparing women for the future of work’ as the main speaker at the summit, stressed the need for more gender awareness in policy making. The day when equality is attained, this planet will become a better place to live in, Kavitha said.