Nurturing women MPs

JUST before the Election Commission announced the schedule for the General Election, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik upped the ante on nurturing women parliamentarians. He announced that his party (BJD) would field women in seven of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. This is in line with his intention to empower women. Last year, the Odisha Assembly had boldly passed a resolution proposing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and legislative assemblies. The step is laudable as this long-standing proposal has been confined to the back-burner though most parties keep making the right noises seeking a piece of legislation on and off. Intriguingly, even under such powerful women leaders as Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati, the move has remained mere lip service. A flicker of hope was raised when the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, which proposed to amend the Constitution to reserve one-third of the LS and Assembly seats for women, was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. But the flash got extinguished as the Bill lapsed in 2014, with the LS never having voted on it.

Patnaik has again showcased leadership and carried forward his father’s legacy with this historic step. In 1990, Biju Patnaik was the first one in the country to implement 33 per cent quota for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and in 2012, Naveen Patnaik enhanced it to 50 per cent. The key to his unbeatable sway of 19 years as Odisha CM is his spectacular success in turning around the economy of the state. Having inherited a state devastated by cyclones, Odisha is now held as a model of development. While it imported rice in 2000, today it is the third largest contributor to PDS. He has left an indelible mark with his administrative prowess in poverty alleviation and disaster management.

The 2019 elections promise to be a watershed for women empowerment as now other parties too will be compelled to match the BJD in wooing women. It remains to be seen how far they walk the talk. Till then, Naveen Patnaik remains a lone star shining bright.