Mahila Congress on 50 Lakh membership drive, quota in power

Panaji, June 6 (UNI) The All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) has decided to launch a massive campaign to educate women, particularly in rural areas, about developmental schemes and programmes meant for them so that they could make the best use of them at the earliest.

Interacting with mediapersons before winding up her two-day visit of Goa, the AIMC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi had also pleaded the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) for allocating at least 20 per cent of the a total 40 seats of the Goa Legislative Assembly to deserving women in the elections mid next year.

She said she was confident that the bill seeking 33 per cent reservations to women in Parliament and state legislative bodies would come through this year as promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi.

''If not done, I urge the GPCC to nominate women for at least 20 per cent of the seats for coming elections. Right away, there is only one women representative in the 40-member House in Goa,'' Ms Rita said.

Thanking the Centre for not hiking the prices of kerosene and domestic gas, she further said this vindicated the committment of the Congress leadership towards the women. It had, however, hiked the prices of petrol and diesel out of compulsions beyond its control.

Elaborating on the education campaign, the AIMC chief said they would release pamphlets and booklets besides conducting training programmes in the country for women to make them aware of several developmental schemes of the Centre for women and child welfare.

The membership drive, which had not been undertaken since 1994, was expected to enroll at least 50 lakh women in the country, 10,000 of them in Goa, where the status of women in several fronts was better than their counterparts in other states including in sex ratio.

It was only the Congress party that earmarked 12 per cent of assembly seats for women as against eight per cent by the NJP and three per cent by the left in all legislative bodies, she added..

The credit at the same time goes to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who mooted the Panchayati Raj Bill due to which 12.5 lakh women were now holding the fort in panchayats in the country.

Referring to liquor menace causing trouble in women's family life, Ms Rita said the Goa Mahila Congress would study the situation and make representation to the Chief Minister against liquor consumption.

''Women's issues can not be camouflaged by other factors and we impress upon the government for discouraging consumption of liquor to avoid breaking of families,'' she added.

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