INDIA: New all female political party formed
Updated
India has a new political party and its members are all women. The United Women's Front is the country's first ever political party formed by women and run by women. Its aim is to focus on women's empowerment.
Presenter: Linda Lopresti
Speakers: Parm Ahluwalis, the general secretary of India's all new female political party, the United Women Front
AHLUWALIS: It's the only female party that's been launched in our country and I think in the entire Asian region. In fact it's now the only existing women's party in the world.
LOPRESTI: But why does India need a women's political party?
AHLUWALIS: India needs it because all the political parties have not been giving full rights to the women, have not been giving them their place or the seats that were necessary for them. We are a very valuable work bank for all the political parties of the country. We are 50 per cent of the population, and this 50 per cent of the population is a very valid work bank for all the political parties which has so far only been used by different parties to help men. But we want to use it for all our women to move up in all spheres of life.
LOPRESTI: And yet you have the Communist Party which is in the ruling coalition which is led by a woman, Sonia Gandhi?
AHLUWALIS: That's right, but we need to consider the percentage of votes that are given on the national scene. In the national scene you see in the parliament today we have only 8.8 per cent of women in the national parliament of India. Even other countries have 9 per cent, Pakistan has 22 per cent, a lot of countries have 40-plus, whereas India, which is such a big country with the second-largest population, we are one of the lowest in terms of female representation.
LOPRESTI: There is a proposal to reserve one-third of seats in federal and state legislatures for women. Now that proposal I understand has been pending in parliament for more than a decade. So is your party going to be pushing for that to move along?
AHLUWALIS: We are not going to be pushing for 33 per cent, we want equal representation.
LOPRESTI: Fifty per cent?
AHLUWALIS: Yes, sure we want equal representation, in all spheres whether it is political, economic, administration, in every sphere of life we want equality.
LOPRESTI: Does your party look specifically at women's issues only?
AHLUWALIS: No it's going to look at all sorts of issues, like any other national party. But we're definitely going to concentrate on the women's issues because we want to look after the interests of women, whether it is domestic violence, whether it is women's harrassment in workplaces, all issues that come under the heading of women's issues we're going to be definitely taking care of that. But that is one aspect of our political party. Our political party is going to be like any other political party, whether it's industries, whether it's economy, whether it's education, whether administration, whether it's electricity, whether it is water; every aspect we have to look after. If we are in power we have to be like any other political party.
LOPRESTI: But you're different from every other political party because you're exclusively women?
AHLUWALIS: I agree with you, but then that was the only way, for 10 years we have been wanting to have 33 per cent of representation in the parliament, but no political party has given it so far, only in the local level we have got 33 per cent representation. But when it comes to state level or national level that's not there. So it's high time we women took up the issues and fought for our own rights and used our own work bank.
LOPRESTI: Are you concerned that though you'll be alienating male voters in this way, that male voters won't be voting for your party?
AHLUWALIS: No, no, we won't be alienating the males at all, we will support them if they support our issues, our programs, our agenda. We want to work as equal partners with men and women. We will field women candidates definitely but we want to support all male candidates who support our cause.
LOPRESTI: So parliamentary elections will be held in 2009, do you have candidates to run as yet?
AHLUWALIS: We are going to take care of this, but we have only just launched the party, so we're going to be working very hard for the next couple of months and getting ready for the elections. We'll definitely be fielding our own candidates.
