Over six decades after Independence, just 12 pc women in Parliament!

Over six decades after Independence, just 12 pc women in Parliament!

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 7 March 2016 AT 09:54 PM IST

    

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=5177936560416191142&SectionId=4861338933482912746&SectionName=Blog&NewsTitle=Over%20six%20decades%20after%20Independence,%20just%2012%20pc%20women%20in%20Parliament

Camil Parkhe, Parliament, women, women's quota, Reservation, Maharashtra

Women power: PM Narendra Modi greets delegates after the valedictory session of the National Conference of Women Legislators

One experiences a rare kind of bonhomie when women Members of Parliament belonging to various political parties come together. This was noticed when these women members came together last week as a part of the national conference of women legislators. And as has been the case with all other such meets in the past, this convention too has once again brought the issue of women’s quota in Parliament to the fore. President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari have stressed on the need for all political parties to arrive at a consensus to pass the long pending Bill on Women’s Reservation for Parliament and state legislature seats.
Incidentally, Maharashtra was one of the first states in the country in early 1990s to implement the provision of 33% seats for women in local self-government bodies. This revolutionary provision was implemented when Sharad Pawar was the State chief minister. The first elections for civic bodies with the 33% quota for women were held in Kolhapur Municipal Corporation. I remember camping in Kolhapur along with representatives of various dailies to cover this one of the first such elections in the country. There were many apprehensions whether this experiment will ever be successful in achieving its avowed aim of politically empowering women or whether the men in the families will continue to rule by proxy despite the rule on women’s quota.
Three decades have passed since 33% quota for women in local self-government bodies came into the force. A few years ago, the women’s quota was enhanced to 50%, providing representation to a large number of women in decision making at the local civic bodies. India perhaps may be the first country in the world to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in local self-government bodies. However even six decades after Independence, the percentage of women in Parliament has remained less than 12%. Comparatively, Pakistan and Bangladesh have higher representation in their national assemblies.
Unfortunately the issue of providing quota for women in Parliament and state assemblies has been pending in the Lok Sabha for many years although the same Bill has already been passed in the Rajya Sabha. In the previous House, the issue of the women’s quota in its given form was mainly opposed by the Socialist leaders namely Mulayam Singh Yadav, and others while both the UPA government and the then main opposition party BJP both competed with each other in paying lip sympathy for the woman’s quota.
Now with the change of guard at the Centre, the roles in the Lok Sabha have been reversed. This is also for the first time in three decades that the ruling party at the Centre enjoys a simple majority. Surprisingly there has been a deafening silence on the issue of providing for women’s quota in Parliament and state assemblies since the change of power at the Centre. Neither the ruling NDA coalition nor the Opposition parties have ever raised this issue either in the House or outside.
President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari have now raised the issue of women’s quota. The ongoing debate on JNU, nationalism, sedition and intolerance in the country is likely to  continue for a longer period. The ruling and opposition parties will earn the kudos of women, the country’s nearly half population, if they arrive at a consensus to provide some percentage of reservation to women in Parliament and state legislatures.
The political parties have already wasted many years on this issue. Now they need to muster the political will and work to ensure that the next general elections will be held to have an adequate number of women lawmakers in both Houses of Parliament.

Changing focus of news

Changing focus of news

Sakal Times Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 7 September 2015 AT 09:34 PM IST

    

news selection, criterias, news, focus, Camil Parkhe

Selection of the lead news for the page one of the newspaper has always been the most challenging job of the news editors. That is why often even the chief editors are also involved in this important task.

When I joined journalism profession in Goa, most newspapers were totally dependent on the two news agencies,the PTI and UNI. These news agencies transmitted their news through teleprinters installed in the newspaper offices. The news desk teams would then sort out the news, pin them together subjectwise and place them before the chief sub-editor for marking them on various pages. I remember, sometimes I used to accompany the newspaper's chief sub-editor in the jeep to the residence of the editor from Panaji to Miramar for selecting the lead news for page one and deciding their headings.

Sometimes, especially on Sundays and holidays, the days would be very dull newswise and it would be difficult to select the page one news or the lead news of that day.

In such circumstances, the editor had a permanent solution. He would then see what the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had said or done that day and tell us to use that as the lead news for the next day's newspaper. There is a famous dictum in journalism, “When in doubt, cut it out!” In a similar lines,his refrain was: “When in doubt, always use the PM's speech. You'll never be faulted for that.”

Before 1970s, political news always dominated the front pages of all newspapers in the country. For many years, the municipal corporators, legislators and parliamentarians obstructing the functioning of their respective Houses or running with the maces of the presiding officers to press for their demands were the favourite front page news for the news editors. It took many years for the newspaper editors to realise that these issues did not really deserve the front page slots and that the elected representatives were emboldened to stall house proceedings or create ruckus there only to hog limelight in the media.

Some years later almost all newspapers concluded that the politicians, ministers and elected representatives and – their speeches and actions – did not always merit front page space. This provided some space to humane interest stories,sports issues and local stories on the front page. Business matters which was in the past relegated to inside page of the newspapers also started appearing on the front page, thanks to the Harshad Mehta-led stock exchange scam and the increasing privatisation in the country's economy.

In the recent past, sensational celebrity crimes have been occupying the newspaper's front page space. A couple of years back, the issues related to the then Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, his wife Sunanda and a woman journalist from Pakistan were the matters of the front page newspaper coverage for many national and regional newspapers.

For the past fortnight, the issue involving Indrani Mukherjee, wife of Peter Mukherjee, former CEO of Star India, had dominated the front pages - and also inside pages - of several national and regional newspapers. At that time, some newspapers had only grudgingly allowed some space on the front page to the Patel community's massive agitation in Gujarat!

The other day, a senior citizen who is also a former bureaucrat questioned me why we mediapersons in newspapers and television channels were devoting so much space and time to the Indrani Mukherjee affair. I counter-questioned if whether he himself had not read or watched avidly all those details. His smile itself was his affirmative answer. “TRP is all what matters,isn't it...?” he said in exasperation.

Of course, I know it is a vicious circle. Neither the media or the readers are to be blamed in this regard. The focus of the media for news will always keep on changing. For good or bad.

 

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Comments

Tania Roy - Wednesday, 9 September 2015 AT 12:34 PM IST

Enjoyed your article. It's indeed a sad state of affairs for journalists and journalism. Media houses selecting stories based on TRPs cannot run the show for long. Intelligent readers will make sure that they aren't taken for a ride. For readers and the world there are far more pressing concerns like water crisis, refugee issues and so on.