Women empowerment a matter of recognition, not political issue: HM Amit Shah

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said for the BJP government, women empowerment is a matter of recognition and not a political issue.
“Women empowerment can be a political issue for some parties and a weapon to win the elections, but it is a matter of recognition for BJP,” Shah said while participating in the debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Shah said the Census across the couhtry and the delimitation process for constituencies will be undertaken after the Lok Sabha election next year.
“I want to say that there will be one-third women in the House after the implementation of this bill,” the Home Minister said.
On the question of supporting the Bill, he mentioned that some people on social media said that it should not be supported as it does not include quotas for OBC and Muslim representatives.
“Some people on social media are asking not to support this bill as it has no reservation for OBCs and Muslims. I want to ask if you don’t support this bill, would the reservation come earlier? If you support the bill, at least it will be guaranteed that this will be implemented,” said Shah, adding “whatever drawbacks are there we will take a look at them later”.
The present bill is the fifth attempt to enact reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
The Bill was brought four times between 1996 and 2010 during the Prime Ministerial tenures of H D Devegowda, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, but could not be passed.
“What was the reason? Why was it not passed on previous occasions?” Asked Shah.
On the OBC reservation issue, Shah informed that 29 per cent of all BJP MPs, and 29 ministers are from the OBC community.
“Out of 1358 BJP MLAs, 365 MLAs are from OBC. This is more than all those parties who are talking about OBC reservation. PM Modi has done the welfare of the backward class from his heart,” he said.
Referring to PM Modi’s vision of women-led development, Shah said the passing of the bill will end the long fight for women’s rights. “During the G20, PM Narendra Modi presented the vision of women-led development to the whole world. The beginning of the new era of Women-led development is going to happen through this bill,” Home Minister said.