NEW DELHI: Politics in India is now changing from when it used to be called as a ‘male bastion’ to opening new vistas for women, who are gradually becoming good political leaders. But despite the increasing voting percentage of women and growing participation of women in politics right from Panchayat to Parliament levels, India has now only 102 women MPs out of a total existing strength of 764 MPs in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
Aimed at increasing the participation of women and girls from a common background in politics as well as policy-making arenas, Shiv Sena MP in Upper House (RS) Priyanka Chaturvedi has embarked on a first-of-its-kind mission to educate and encourage women and girls, who aspire to be into the policy-making and political arena.
Christened as project ‘Pratham Ti’, Chaturvedi moved with this in May this year inspired by the ideology of (late) Baba Saheb Thackeray, who always wanted to have equal participation of women in politics and the country’s policy-making endeavour.
She started this initiative with an initial group of just 10 girls from various fields of life, who get to intern with a woman MP free of cost to make them acquainted with various parliamentary and policy-making processors and formalities.
Speaking to TNIE, Priyanka Chaturvedi said: “This initiative called ‘Pratham Ti’ is aimed at making Indian politics and policy more accessible to young women from common backgrounds, who despite having immense political wisdom and wits, lack motivation and support for entering politics."
Detailing this initiative, she said that women and girls of ‘Pratham Ti’ have been assigned a 3-month internship with a woman MP to get them acquainted with various terms and techniques of parliamentary procedures and policy-making skills.
“A galaxy of influential intellectuals and speakers like Pawan Khera, Syed Akabaruddin, Samir Saran, Shiv Shankar Singh (Author of The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities) and How to Win an Indian Election), Maansi Verma (founder of Maadhyam-a civic engagement initiative) and others have so far trained the girls through sessions on the functioning of the Parliament and shared great insights encouraging the girls for politics," she recalled.
Mumbai’s mayor Kishori Pednekar was among others who came forward to train the girls under the ‘Pratham-Ti’ initiative, which is aimed to encourage and empower the Pratham-Ti fellows moving them into politics and policy-making issues.
This is actually a 7- month initiative with the support of many faculty and speakers like Dr Carole Spary-associate professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK, Syed Akbaruddin-dean of Kautilya School of Public Policy and former permanent representative of India in UN, Pawn Khera, Samir Saran-president of ORF, Akhil Neelam-Co-founder of Women for politics and others.
Impressed by Chaturvedi's initiative, the NETRI Foundation-which is India’s first women’s political incubator that helps women up-skill and trains them to join politics, has started training the fellows of Pratham-Ti.
“The Observer Research Foundation has also come in support of this initiative to make Indian women and girls entering into politics competent in policy-making, and to take the country to new heights of women empowerment," she said.
Recalling the first day of the Pratham-Ti, she said that it moved with a session in ‘Public Narrative Gender & Intersectionality’ by Dr Carole Spary-director of Asia Research Institute and professor of politics at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
Shivangi Sharma-student of BA in Jesus and Mary College Delhi, Adithya, student of Hindu College, Divya Dixit, studying economics at NMIMS in Mumbai, Sreelakshmi, pursuing graduation from Miranda House hailing from the land of elephants and festival, Thrissur in Kerala Shristi Srivastava from UP many others are among the first cohort of Pratham-Ti young fellows, being acquainted and trained for their rise in politics.
“The Pratham T would be across the country to make Indian politics more accessible to them through wider gender empowerment," Priyanka Chaturvedi said. Apart from this, 20 women Shiv Sena leaders are also motivating the women in Maharashtra's many districts as part of Pratham-Ti.