Nothing But Despair ?

Do forthcoming Lok Sabha elections hold anything but despair for the women of India  ?

Unfortunate , but I don't think so

Optimists may want to look at the following statistics  :

Lok Sabha of  /  No of Women Contestants  /  Winners  /  Percentage

>    1957   /   45   /   27   /      60 %

>    1967   /   67   /   30   /      45  %

>    1980   /   142   /   28   /    20  %

>    1998   /   274   /   43   /    16  %

>    1999   /   296   /   52   /    17  %

>    2004   /   355   /   45   /    13 %

>    2009   /   556   /   59   /    10 %

>    2014   ?   600  ?   60  ?     10  %  ?

My reasons for despair  :

>  Even though marginally more number of women may contest in 2014 ,

    the percentage of women winners may either remain same or decline

>  Apparently - and sadly - women voters ( nearly 400+ million ) will

    continue to vote for male candidates

>  With a male-dominated Lok Sabha , Women's Reservation Bill , which is

    pending for the past 40 years , will continue to remain pending for next

    40 years

>  With 11 % women in Lok Sabha , India ranks 111th out of 185 countries

    when it comes to women representation in parliaments of these countries

>  Criminalization of politics will continue as before , despite the fact that ,in

    the current Lok Sabha , only 6 women MPs have " Criminal Cases "

    pending against them , as against 161 male MPs who have such a

    reputation  !

Is there any hope  ?

Yes ,

>  If all women members of 7 National level and 34 Regional level political

     parties resign en-masse from their current parties and come together to

     form WAR ( Women And Rights ) party

>  Accept only women as members of this WAR party

>  Put up women candidates for all 543 Lok Sabha seats ( too late for 2014 )

>  Persuade women voters not to vote for any male candidate

WOMEN  OF  INDIA ,

If you think , by some magic , male-dominated Lok Sabha will hand-over to

you  EQUALITY  on a platter , then forget it

You are fooling no one but yourself   !

Don't expect the males to gift you , your RIGHTS

You will need to forcefully snatch away what is rightfully , yours  !


Empower  Yourself  !





Stop self - pity and ask yourself,


" How come a developing African country like RWANDA , has 60 % members of its parliament ,
women  ? "

*   hemen  parekh   ( 30  March  2014  /  Mumbai  )