'Govt hasn't kept women's bill promise

Unfortunately, not an inch of progress has been made in this regard, Member of Parliament from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Brinda Karat said here on Wednesday.
She was speaking at a seminar on ‘Women’s Reservation Bill in the Dock’ organised by the Akhila Bharata Janavaadi Mahila Sanghatan and Surana College here on Wednesday.

Karat said: “President Pratibha Patil had announced that the Central Government will ensure that the women’s reservation bill will be passed in 100 days, but the promises are still not kept.”

She added that India was lagging behind when compared to its neighbouring countries when it came to the share of elected women representatives in the parliament.
She added: “The reservation for women in Pakistan is 22 per cent, in Afghanistan it is 27 per cent; Bangladesh has 13 per cent and China 20 per cent.
“However, we only have 11 per cent women representatives in the parliament, and have still been still struggling for 33 per cent since the last nine years.”