Unfair deal to fair sex

PATNA: It is one thing to raise slogans of women upliftment, and quite another to do something tangible for the cause. This appears to be exactly the case with political parties which grab each and every opportunity to talk big about women empowerment and gender equality.
Most of the parties in the state have denied tickets to women to fight the LS elections.In the "sitting-getting" strategy adopted by most parties, under which mostly the sitting MPs have been retained as candidates, women have failed to find a seat for themselves, exceptions apart.
The ruling RJD has given just one of its 26 tickets to a woman, Kanti Singh. And CM Rabri Devi explains: "Other parties gave few or no tickets to women. So we also decided to do the same." Besides, no woman candidate came forward to ask for a ticket, she said, adding one reason behind women not participating in elections is that they do not get adequate family support.
Even BJP has not made women politicians "feel good". None of the 16 seats to be contested by it would have a woman BJP candidate. State BJP spokesperson Kiran Ghai admitted women don’t have even 10 per cent representation in politics. "It’s sad women are not being given their due. The ultimate aim of every party is to form a government and, therefore, no party wants to take a risk by projecting inexperienced female leaders," she said.
However, Ghai claimed, this is not true for BJP. The party was left with few options as the number of tickets was limited and sitting MPs could not be sacrificed for the sake of new female candidates, she said.
The JD-U, which is contesting 24 seats, has given only one ticket to a woman — Renu Kumari from Khagaria. "The party could not find women candidates dynamic enough to win," state JD-U chief Brijendra Prasad Yadav said, adding that illiteracy, backwardness and social customs prevent women in Bihar to make a name in politics.
Other parties like LJP and Congress will field one woman candidate each. While LJP has given ticket to Ranjita Rajesh, Congress has fielded Meira Kumar from Sasa-ram. While Rajesh is wife of sitting Purnia MP Pappu Yadav, Kumar is daughter of the late deputy PM Jagjivan Ram.
CPI-ML is the lone party which has given two tickets to women.
The party’s central committee member and AIPWA’s state chief Saroj Chaubey said politics is going to remain male-dominated unless women fight for 33 per cent representation in Parliament and legislatures. "There appears no way out," she added.
The 14th Lok Sabha elections are in no way better than 1999 LS elections in terms of women participation. Last time 17 women fought the elections of whom five won from Bihar. This time, seven women have been fielded by political parties.