New Delhi: The women representation in the Parliament from Odisha has increased to 33 per cent but their participation in the daily proceedings of the Lok Sabha has not seen a substantial improvement as the Women MPs have rarely spoken in the House.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had launched a massive campaign to enhance women’s representation in the Parliament. It also gave tickets to seven women candidates in the Parliamentary elections to woo women voters. Out of seven, five women got elected to the Lower House. However, the participation of the women MPs from the state miss the zeal as after one month of the first session of the Lok Sabha, the five BJD women MPs have spoken only once in the House.
In their maiden speech in the Lower House during Zero Hour, Keonjhar MP Chandrani Murmu had raised issue of unemployment in the tribal areas while Aska MP Pramila Bisoyi demanded increase in honorarium to Asha Karmis and Anganwadi workers to `15,000. Jajpur MP Sarmistha Sethi had urged the Ministry of Railways to commence and complete the railway line from Jajpur-Keonjhar Road station to Dhamra Port station to promote tourism in her constituency and Bhadrak MP Manjulata Mandal demanded construction of bridges at Bhadrak, Bahanaga and other railways stations in her constituency. Jagatsinghpur MP Rajashree Mallick had urged the Union government to work for improvement of NH 55 from Cuttack to Naugaon to avoid accidents and congestion.
To give opportunity to MPs to raise the issues related to their constituencies, both houses of Parliament grants one hour, known as Zero Hour, between 12-1 pm in every proceeding. The MPs can also ask questions directly to the concerned ministers in the Question Hour, first hour of the daily proceedings. Senior BJD MPs Bhartruhari Mahtab and Pinaki Mishra have asked questions to the ministers during the Question Hour while several other MPs such as Mahesh Sahoo, Chandrasekhar Sahu, Ramesh Majhi have often raised state-specific issues during the Zero Hour.
But the women MPs’ participation in the Question Hour and Zero Hour has been very less. The women Lok Sabha MPs have also not raised any unstarred questions till now.
The BJD has spoken on every bill produced in the Lok Sabha for passing till now and also supported them. The senior party leaders such as Bhartruhari Mahtab, Pinaki Mishra, Anubhav Mohanty and Chandra Sekhar Sahu have spoken on the bills but none of the women MPs from the party has taken part in any discussion or bill.
The women MPs have also not spoken during the special mentions under Rule 377 in the Lower House and neither had they taken part in the discussions on demands for grants under the control of different ministries.
The BJD has maintained its stand for 33 per cent reservation to women in the Parliament and urged the Centre to work for it but the party seems to be less concerned about increasing the participation of the women MPs in the daily proceedings of the House.
