The three-day National Women’s Parliament held at Amaravati appears to have no purpose or objective, except giving a big hype to Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Everybody expected that there would be discussions and debates on issues concerning women, including gender bias in work places, problems of women’s labourers, growing incidences of atrocities on women, making Nirbhaya Act more stringent, lack of medical facilities to women in rural and tribal areas, women trafficking and girl-child care.
More importantly, there should have been elaborate discussion on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet programme of Beti Padhao and Beti Bachao. The girl child abuse is also a very important topic to be debated upon at the meeting.
However, there was no focus on any of these issues. Though some women leaders raised their issues to some extent, most of the speakers dedicated their time only to praise Chandrababu Naidu, his government and his administrative skills.
It looked like a forum only to praise Naidu. Some of them went to the extent of describing Naidu as the first “feminist” chief minister of the country!
Well, that is what Naidu wanted. And the meeting served its purpose!
