By Chandni Shah
At the Mahila Adhikar Sammelan organized by the Women’s Congress, Rahul Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, announced that he would ensure 50% posts in the Congress Party to women. He further added that it wouldn’t be overnight, but an aim. But as for us, we’re not holding our breath for it to happen soon because let’s face it, you’re just hoping we’ll be super tempted and vote for you in the 2019 elections. You want to be the forward-thinking, feminist candidate that’ll make us drool and vote for you in the elections. You’re just hoping this aim will help you get votes like you did with the #MisogynisticModi video on Twitter.
It’s nice that you’re aiming for 50% representation in the party, but it’s not just about giving us the seats. Out of the 464 seats that the Congress contested in for the last elections, there were only 60 women, as reported by India Today. That’s 12.9% of the total seats. Now you’ll be like that news is old news, so here are the statistics on the latest polls, that happened in Karnataka in May 2018. 8% of tickets were given to women for these elections, as reported by Economic Times. Out of the 8%, 3% of women were elected to be legislators. Congress fielded 222 candidates, and out of them, 15 were women.
Before you go on to say that you will ensure posts in the Congress, give women tickets to contest for elections first. If there aren’t many women contesting, how will they get the posts that you have promised? So maybe, before you go on to make announcements to ensure posts to women, look at how many tickets the Congress Party actually gives to women. Start by giving equal tickets to men and women and helping women candidates in the election win equally. Then you can make good on your statement and ensure that women get equal posts and make decisions as well. Let women participate in elections, and support them. That is what will help women and not just announcements that sound big and fancy but have no actual timeline for success.