Reserved women seats: What are the qualifications to be nominated?
Women empowerment is the need of the hour. In order to meet this need, there is a system of reserved seats for women in the National Parliament. The aim is to ensure women’s participation in the country’s policy-making and development process.
But is this goal being implemented? In reality, how much role can members of reserved seats for women play in running the state? The reality is that since there is no direct election to reserved seats for women, they become members of parliament through party nominations. And that is where the trouble lies.
According to a report of this newspaper published yesterday, the ruling BNP has disclosed the names of 36 nominees in the reserved women seats while Jamaat confirms 8, NCP 2, one nominee each from Jatiya Ganatantrik Party and Bangladesh Khilafat Majlis, alongside one representative from the family of a July martyr.
It has been observed that all parties give priority to their thinking without taking a strong role in any issue related to women’s interests.
We have also seen that in the last few parliaments, many of the women members could not properly present their statements in the House. Because of this, they fail to play the desired role.
The question naturally arises; can a parliament be meaningful overall like this? The state spends a lot of money on the National Parliament
. If a large portion of the members of parliament cannot play a productive role despite spending so much money, then on what grounds can the parliament be called effective?
Needless to say, there are more qualified women in our society than those who are nominated based on party considerations.
Many women are working for women’s empowerment and the development of the country. If women are selected from among them and nominated for the members of parliament, then the state will undoubtedly benefit a lot.
Again, there are many women who are endowed with advanced thoughts; but due to lack of opportunities, they are not able to reflect their thoughts.
We hope that in the coming days, the high command of all political parties will show prudence in selecting members for reserved women seats.
A common practice is that when a member of parliament dies, his wife or son or daughter is selected.
There is no question if the selected ones are qualified; but mere husband or son-daughter identity cannot be a qualification for becoming a member of parliament.
We want to see our parliament as a meaningful institution. Discretion is very important in choosing women members.
