Raw deal for women in Telangana

Woman expected a better place and greater opportunities in the new State but it is unfortunate that the TRS has not given any ticket to women candidate in the MLC elections–D K Aruna, Congress leader

​Hyderabad: As the world gets ready to celebrate International Women’s Day, a look at the status of women in the political apparatus of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) makes for a bizarre read. Barring the lip service extended to aspects on women empowerment, the situation at the ground level remains deplorable and smacks of utter neglect of women.

This comes in stark contrast to the claims made by Telangana Government that it has been pro-women and cite several welfare measures to substantiate their arguments. But when it comes to empowering women politically, the government seems to have given a raw deal to them.

Though it is nearly three years since assuming office, it has not accommodated women in either the Council of Ministers or the Legislative Council.

Incidentally, Akula Lalitha, the lone woman in the Council is from Congress party. There has been a systematic neglect of women as far as TRS goes. This becomes pronounced when one takes a cursory look at the past ‘considerations’.

In 2014, Nayani Narsimha Reddy and Ramulu Naik were nominated under Governors quota. A year later, in the elections to the two Graduates constituency seats -- Warangal- Khammam- Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar- Ranga Reddy- Hyderabad, the ruling party nominee Palla Rajeswar Reddy and TBJP leader Ramachandra Rao were nominated and duly elected.

The party did not field a single woman to any of the five MLC seats under MLA quota for which elections were held.

It was ditto in the 2016 elections for 12 MLC seats under local bodies quota. Even under MLA quota the Chief Minister picked up Mohammed Fareeduddin.

What is a bigger talking point is that women were not even considered for teachers constituency by TRS, although the fact is that over 40 percent of teachers in the State are women.

Meanwhile, party MP from Nizamabad, K Kavitha said that it was not correct to say that the TRS was ignoring women. She said it had given the post of Deputy Speaker in the Legislative Assembly to a woman.

There are about 75 women corporators in GHMC. She explains that the Chief Minister has decided to provide pro-active administrative roles to women. Preference in nominated posts would be given to women who took an active role in the Telangana Statehood movement and strove for women development.

A three-member committee consisting of Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy, Karimnagar ZP Chairperson Tula Uma and Kavitha will select women candidates for chairperson posts for some corporations.

Home Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy said that the government was giving utmost importance to women. Besides schemes like Kalyana Lakshmi and constituting SHE Teams, the government will honour 24 women from diverse fields on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

However, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that it was unfortunate that the Chief Minister did not select even a single woman for the post of MLCs. The Congress party has always believed in real empowerment of women. In the previous Congress regime they had five women ministers in the State Cabinet.

Senior Congress leader D K Aruna said that the way TRS MLAs behave with women members in the Assembly reflects their respect to the opposite gender.

Woman expected a better place and greater opportunities in the new State but it is unfortunate that the TRS has not given any ticket to women candidate in the MLC elections, she lamented.

Of course, the only two instances where women have been duly rewarded have been in naming Sania Mirza as Brand Ambassador of Telangana State and to a lesser extent Nikhat Zareen, the face of Nizamabad, which is represented in the Lok Sabha by Kavitha.