India should bar political parties with low women representation, demands activist group

• The National Alliance of Women’s Organisation has suggested all the political parties to ensure 33% representation of women in all internal committee.
  
• The activist group while launching “Womanifesto” suggested having 30% of the annual budget for growth and development dedicated to women.
  
• “All houses should be registered in the name of husband and wife and marital rape should be criminalised.” said the manifesto.
  

A women’s rights group in India has strongly suggested barring all the political parties in the country from the upcoming elections if they have very few women on their tickets.

The National Alliance of Women’s Organisations, an activist group, launched their "Womanifesto" on Wednesday demanding call-for-action to improve women’s representation in politics.

"The Election Commission must make some rules that unless you have at least 33 percent (female) members, you cannot qualify (for elections)," Ranjana Kumari, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research (CSR) told Reuters.

The manifesto pitched for having 33% reservations for women in all internal committees of political parties and to have 30% of the annual budget for growth and development of women. It also asked to provide free sanitary napkins to girls in schools and free treatment for acid and rape attack victims in all the hospitals, reported NDTV.

As per the manifesto, “all houses should be registered in the name of husband and wife and marital rape should be criminalised.”

Women in India accounts for approximately half the voters in India as per Election Commission of India. Moreover, a recent state poll has revealed that women will have a key role to play in the upcoming elections with women voters increasing faster than men.


However, women continue to face a high rate of crime, low level of representation in workforce and politics.

The manifesto further stated “ The Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and home departments of all state governments should constitute peace committees and ensure that at least 50% of the members are women".

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Women participation may be higher than men in India's upcoming elections, says report