Allow all women MPs to take part in marriage age bill panel: Sushmita Dev | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Allow all women MPs to take part in parl panel on marriage age bill: Sushmita Dev

Written by Srivatsan K C | Edited by Sohini Goswami, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Jan 03, 2022 07:34 PM IST

Sushmita Dev asked Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to allow any “woman member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha be empowered to testify either in writing or in person before the Committee on this issue”.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sushmita Dev, the only woman lawmaker in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, wrote to the committee’s chairperson and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, urging him to allow the all women MPs to testify before the committee regarding the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Sushmita Dev said there are 81 women members in the Lower House and 29 in the Upper House and they would have “much to contribute” towards the discussion regarding the bill.(ANI File Photo)
Sushmita Dev said there are 81 women members in the Lower House and 29 in the Upper House and they would have “much to contribute” towards the discussion regarding the bill.(ANI File Photo)

The letter from Dev came amid a growing demand for inclusion of more women in the discussion of the key bill that aims to raise the legal marriage of women in the country from 18 to 21.

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In her letter, the TMC MP asked Sahasrabuddhe to invoke 84(3) and 275 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) to allow any “woman member of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha be empowered to testify either in writing or in person before the Committee on this issue”.

She said there are 81 women members in the Lower House and 29 in the Upper House and they would have “much to contribute” towards the discussion regarding the bill.

Also read | Only 1 woman member in panel that will examine bill to raise legal marriage age

“I request you to use the powers of your office to open the meetings of the committee on this issue to testimonials from any of the honourable women members, and request you to allot time accordingly,” she added.

She had earlier said the committee itself was gender-imbalanced and she would push for all women MPs to present their views. “I was very surprised that I am the only woman member in the committee that is related to the woman and child development ministry which is the nodal ministry for the bill. There is gender imbalance no doubt,” news agency ANI quoted her as saying earlier in the day.

Several other women parliamentarians had joined the chorus in demanding they be allowed to contribute to discussions on the issue. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu seeking more women representation in the committee.

Meanwhile, Kanimozhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) criticised the government for sending the bill to raise women’s legal marriage for review to a committee that had 30 men.

“There are a total of 110 female MPs but the government chooses to assign a bill that affects every young woman in the country to a panel that has 30 men and only one woman. Men will continue to decide the rights of women. And women will be made mute spectators,” she said.

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