Pick any election rally of the BJP, and you will see the party’s star campaigners talking about the Congress’s manifesto. So impactful has been the Congress’s promise to the voters that BJP has forgotten all about its “400 paar” jumla and is struggling to counter the Congress manifesto at every step.
Historically, the Congress Party has been the biggest proponent of women’s empowerment in this country — with India’s first woman PM Indira Gandhi, first woman President Pratibha Patil, and first woman speaker Meira Kumar. This is a legacy that Congress has tried to expand, through our 2024 manifesto.
The Constitution (106th) Amendment Act marks the BJP’s great betrayal of women. Its provisions dictate that the reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will only come into operation beyond 2029. This is in stark contrast to the intention of the Congress in first introducing the women’s reservation bill a decade ago.
The Congress will not allow this duplicitous legislature to stand. It will bring the Amendment Act into force immediately. The one-third reservation for women will be applied to state assemblies that will be elected in the next round of assembly elections in 2025. The one-third reservation for women will also be applied to the Lok Sabha that will be elected in 2029.
Representation in all spheres
Another figure of concern is the labour force participation of women in India, which is a dismal 25 per cent. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 puts India at 127 among 146 countries. In 2022, India was lower than Saudi Arabia. This needs to change.
Representation of women mustn’t be restricted only to the legislature. The Congress will ensure that more women are appointed to high positions such as judges, high-ranking police officers, law officers and directors on the boards of listed companies. Equal representation also calls for equal pay and the Congress will enforce the principle of “same work, same wages”.
In the last 10 years, we have seen how inflation and escalating unemployment have consistently chipped away at the savings of the common man. It is the moral duty of the government to ensure that every Indian family is taken care of. This is why Congress has resolved to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide Rs 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer. The poor will be identified as those families that are at the bottom of the income pyramid, and the amount will be directly transferred to the bank account of the oldest woman of the household. This serves the dual purpose of a financial net as well as empowering the women of the family.
I have worked in Kerala alongside hundreds of ASHA workers who were struggling due to meagre pay and delayed payments from the government. This is why I am proud that the Congress manifesto promises that the contribution of the central government to the pay of frontline health workers (such as ASHA, Anganwadi, mid-day meal cooks, etc.) will be doubled.
BJP’s callous attitude towards safety
Lately, we have seen how the harassment of women in the workplace has not just been ignored, it has been enabled by the callous attitude of the BJP toward women’s safety. We have seen the BJP government stand strongly behind serial sexual abuser Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, while women wrestlers were harassed, abused, and even manhandled by the Delhi Police. We have seen how despite knowing about the deviant sexual proclivities of Prajwal Revanna, the BJP still allied with JD(S) and PM Modi also campaigned for him.
These actions lead to women losing faith in institutional mechanisms supposed to be in place to protect them. When Congress comes to power, we will ensure that laws intended to prevent offences against women such as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 are strictly enforced.
Whenever heinous attacks occur on women, Rahul Gandhi raises his voice. Our Prime Minister, on the other hand, pretends that women don’t exist. In the case of the Manipur violence, Rahul Gandhi was the first leader to go and meet the women of the troubled state. Our PM hasn’t been able to display this basic humanity as yet. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have demonstrated how seriously we take the issue of women’s safety and empowerment.
Don’t just go by my words. You can see how the Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana have worked for women. This is not a recent trend. It was Rajiv Gandhi who introduced 33 per cent women’s reservation in Panchayati Raj. It was under PM Manmohan Singh, with Sonia Gandhi at the forefront in 2010, that the women’s reservation bill was introduced. It passed in the Rajya Sabha, but it couldn’t pass through Lok Sabha because we didn’t have the numbers then.
Since Independence, the Congress has been the party for women. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, the women of India have a choice to make, between a party that has always fought for them, and a party that has reduced them into just an election jumla. Choose wisely!
The writer is national spokesperson, Indian National Congress
