Women empowerment measures to be executed by an all-male cabinet

Out of all the promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party, which emerged victorious on the 7^th February in the 2015 assembly elections; women’s safety seemed to impress people the most. For a party that has always made a clear stand about treating women as equals, it is disheartening to know that the cabinet will not have a single female representative.

According to current reports, Kejriwal’s cabinet will have Satyendra Jain, Adarsh Shastri, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Jitender Tomar, Kapil Mishra, Sandeep Kumar and Asim Ahmed Khan, along with Manish Sisodia as deputy chief minister. So out of all the 6 women candidates the party fielded, all of whom won from their respective constituencies; none will be seen in the cabinet.

In 2013, the cabinet had Rakhi Birla, as the only woman member but this time she too was not considered for a position. The former cabinet minister of Women & Child, Social Welfare and Languages was initially involved in a controversy where she had filed an FIR against a young boy for stoning her car, which she later withdrew. Some suspect this to be the reason for her being left out of the cabinet.

Rakhi Birla
Picture By: Hindustan Times

Yet, apart from Birla, there are 5 other competent women in the party that could have been bought into the cabinet. Even though the Aam Aadmi Party has women in significant roles like Atishi Marlena and Meera Sanyal, keeping women away from the cabinet may not sit well with some of the female supporters of the party.

Here’s hoping that this does not come in the way of the party effectively executing women’s safety and women empowerment initiatives.

Mangalore Today>