Women's Wing of Jat Body Pushes for Quota

Haryana is a state that struggles with women's issues -- from representation to a widely-shared disastrous child sex ratio, to crimes against women, as this paper examines. It comprises of 21 Districts at present out of which 19 districts have sex ratio lower than 880. According to Census 2011 it has the worst sex ratio (877) and lowest child sex ratio (830).

The good news is the push from within, to create change, with a social activist leading the women's wing of a major Jat body pushing for equal representation, via a quota.

PC: International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention

The women's wing of Sarv Jat Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat is on an equality mission, seeking 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats, State Assemblies as well as the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The president of the women's wing of the Mahapanchayat, Dr Santosh Dahiya is leading this call for equality in the political sphere. Dr. Dahiya has proposed all-women panchayats in Kaithal and Hisar and Kurukshetra, Panipat and Sonepat too. While these will be all-women panchayats, men are not barred from participating.

“Till women do not have adequate representation in the elected decision-making bodies, their grievances will not be redressed properly. There are women in Haryana who continue to cover their faces with veils. They do not speak about their problems. I have decided to hold mahila panchayats across the state to listen to them and create a movement to seek higher representation of women in the elected bodies,” Indian Express quoted her as saying.

Even though there are women sarpanches in villages like Manas and Mujadpur, they are reluctant to remove their veil and address the panchayat. Dahiya says she is concerned that women do not open up when men are present in the audience and thus is encouraging the males of the community to be more supportive of women leaders. She reportedly also said that two women sarpanches spoke out, only after she insisted that the husbands won't be allowed to speak.

The women will be meeting MLAs and MPs and getting signatures of the legislators for this initiative which will be taken to the Prime Minister.

Feature Image Courtesy: Jaagore