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No more ‘no, sir’ replies in Parliament. Sena MP says ‘small change, big difference’
Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi had written to the parliamentary affairs minister last month seeking the introduction of gender neutral terms that she said may seem like a small change, but will “go a long way in giving women their due representation in the parliamentary process”.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took to Twitter to announce that henceforth, answers to questions raised in Parliament will use “gender neutral” terms.
She shared a letter that she received from the Parliament secretariat informing her that “no, sir” replies will be dropped from the next Rajya Sabha session onwards. This was in response to a letter the Maharashtra MP wrote to parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi last month.
Chaturvedi called the change a “small step” but one that will bring about a “big difference”.
“Thank the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for correcting the anomaly in parliament question responses from ministries to women MPs. Henceforth the replies will be gender neutral from the ministries,” she tweeted.
The Maharashtra MP had written the letter to Joshi on August 8. In it, she said that as a woman parliamentarian, it is “concerning to observe the institutional gender mainstreaming by the temple of democracy - Parliament itself”.
“Although this may seem like a small change, it will go a long way in giving women their due representation in the parliamentary process,” the letter read.
In response, the Parliament secretariat said that the "ministries will be informed to furnish gender neutral replies to questions raised in the House from next session of Rajya Sabha onwards.
The same norm will be followed in Lok Sabha as well.
