Political parties often say they aren’t able to find women candidates, but activists say it’s an “insult” to scores of women party workers who support them.
Scores of people from all walks of life gathered in Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on Thursday, demanding that the Election Commission make political parties give 50% of their tickets to women in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This was organised by non-partisan political collective Shakti, which was formed to enable more women to join politics.
Posters and slogans of ‘Man 2 Man to Manliament’, ‘A better democracy is where women do not have only the right to vote but get elected’ and ‘EC neither free or fair, tickets to women are so rare,’ among others were raised at the venue. The event was held in eight cities across the country.
Tara Krishnaswamy, the co-convener of Shakti, said, “Our parliament has a dismal 11% of women, and [almost] 90% are men. These men are sitting and passing laws on what should be the tax on sanitary napkins etc. They don’t have the experiences that we do. As…
