HYDERABAD: YS Sharmila on Monday criticised the TRS government for not providing adequate representation to women in its government. Speaking at Women’s Day celebrations at her residence in Lotus Pond, Sharmila said Telangana women had led the fight against Razakars and participated in Peasant Armed Struggle and separate Statehood movement, though they were ignored by the rulers.
Demanding a specified quota (reservation) for women, she said injustice had been meted out to the fairer sex right from representation in the Legislature to employment and welfare schemes. Women are felicitated on Women’s Day and forgotten a day later out here. “We don’t need this. We need respect and recognition every day, at every place, in every form of work and activity,” she said.
Stating that her father, late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has allotted several portfolios to women in his government, Sharmila said she would try to give suitable positions to women in all her policies and party.
TRS says it empowers women
Celebrating International Women’s Day at Telangana Bhavan, several TRS leaders opined that the party was giving ample opportunities to women, whereas the Congress and the BJP were neglecting them. TRS general secretary Tula Uma wondered why the Central government wasn’t introducing a Bill in Parliament providing 33 per cent reservation to women in legislative bodies.
Meanwhile, at another meeting in the city, MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha said that only 25 per cent of employees were women in top IT companies. She pointed out that child marriages in the State had decreased considerably after the introduction of the Kalyan Laxmi scheme.