By IANS,
New Delhi : Addressing the 125th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly being held in Berne, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Tuesday talked about the role of women in Indian polity, highlighting that India’s president, ruling alliance leader, and leader of the opposition were women.
Meira Kumar, who is leading an Indian parliamentary delegation to the IPU assembly that ends Wednesday, said in an interview to the IPU Secretariat’s information division that the Indian government is taking “many effective steps” for the uplift of women and in that direction, a number of legislations have been passed by parliament in the recent past.
Her interview was on issues relating to strengthening of democracy, violence against women, and the role of women parliamentarians, according to a Lok Sabha secretariat press release here.
While replying to the questions, the speaker highlighted the effective role being played by women politicians in the Indian polity, indicating that “the President of India, the leader of the ruling coalition and the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha are all women.”
She also pointed out that the India group of the IPU, in collaboration with the IPU Secretariat, had recently organised a regional seminar for Asian parliaments on “Preventing and Responding to Violence against Women and Girls: From Legislation to Effective Enforcement.”
The speaker also participated in the IPU governing council meet prior to the opening session of the IPU assembly.
The assembly, the release said, considered the requests for the inclusion of issues such as the plight of the people of famine-stricken Somalia and relief efforts by IPU members, as requested by Namibia; realizing the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, moved by Palestine; and the need to further mobilise international support and strengthen international efforts to assist the Somalian people suffering from famine, requested by Iran.
Since Iran and Palestine withdrew their proposals, the item proposed by Namibia was approved as an emergency item in the assembly agenda, it added.