Respected Sir,

After 70 years of Independence women in India who constitute nearly 50% of the population have only 12% representation in our Parliament.

The spirit of our freedom movement is reflected in our Constitution, which guarantees equality regardless of gender, caste or class. Yet, this equality has not been realized and women continue to face exclusion and discrimination in their public and private lives.

This despite the fact that women’s political participation is guaranteed by the Constitution; ensuring women’s political leadership is essential for building a strong and vibrant democracy.

Therefore an affirmative action in the form of reservation of seats for women in the State Legislature and Parliament is imperative.

The passage of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution in 1993 addressed women’s exclusion from political participation at the grass roots level. The implementation of the reservation system has meant that over 1.5 million women now hold positions in Panchayati Raj institutions, and local civic bodies. The emergence of effective women leaders has led many states to increase the reservation of seats for women to 50%.

However, women’s voice is still excluded from higher levels of decision making processes and bodies.

Successive Governments have been stalling the bill in the name of consensus, whereas all we need to pass a bill in Parliament is majority of votes.

Hence we demand that the Women’s Reservation Bill be

• Introduced
• Taken for consideration and
• Put to vote

in the forthcoming session of Parliament to begin a new era in the legislative history of the country .

Please support this demand by signing our petition to Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi.

Only through collective action will we achieve real change for women.