VIJAY DEO JHA/
RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, March 11: The firebrand MLA of Jharkhand Congress Purnima Niraj Singh demanded the assembly Speaker to prohibit members from using words and idioms that go against the modesty of women and show them as weak. She is MLA from Jharia assembly seat.
“It hurts us when anybody uses ‘chudi pahan lo’, ladki ki tarah mat rowo and vidhwa vilap inside the House. These are against the dignity of women. I expect the Speaker will prohibit the use of such words. I request members to desist from using such words,” she said. She further added that gender discrimination is worse than apartheid (color discrimination) and urged the House and members for gender sensitivity. A senior assembly official said that for the first time any MLA raised this matter in the last 22 years.
“As a matter of practice, these words were never considered undemocratic and unparliamentary in the assembly proceedings. Whatever is unparliamentary is expunged from the proceedings of the House,” said the official.
In the House of 81, the number of women legislators is 10 which roughly constitutes 12 percent of the total strength.
Purnima raised the demand during her speech opposing the cut motion brought by former education minister and BJP legislator Neera Yadav on the budget of Rs 5742.31 crore proposed by Women, Child development besides ST, SC, BC, minority and social security department. The budget was finally passed by voice vote in the absence of a BJP legislator after debate.
She said that the mental health of women is a big issue and the government needs to take this matter seriously. She said that the legal system should be strengthened so that victim women get legal advice and support to get justice.
Her party colleague and MLA Dipika Pandey Singh who also prominently raises gender issues supported her. She said that inside and outside of the House one should be careful in uttering anything that goes against the dignity of women projecting them as vulnerable.
Department minister Joba Manjhi welcomed her idea saying “Sujhav Ke liye Dhanyavad” while giving her reply on behalf of government on the budgetary provision and expressing her commitment for all around development of women, children, tribal, backward, minority, scheduled caste besides announcing payment of due remuneration of 10388 Poshan Sakhi by the end of March.
Before raising the demand, Purnima expressed her concern over gender discrimination, struggle of women before her election as legislator and demanded proper opportunity to women in formulation of policies, improvement in their literacy rate.
Before Purnima spoke, Neera Yadav raised demands for the constitution of the State Commission for Protection of Child Right and the State Commission for Women, to check on trafficking of women and children.
JMM legislator Dipak Birua suggested a pension scheme for Anganwadi Sevika and Sahiya, and restarting pilot training for tribes. He also suggested starting a training centre to impart training in heavy vehicle and earth mover operation to tribes. He also talked about Panchayat elections scheduled under the provisions of PESA.
BJP legislator Kedar Hazra suggested the government to pay proper attention to primary education saying how come a poor residing in rural area can think about going for higher education in foreign countries if basic education is not up to mark.
Congress legislator Bandhu Tirkey demanded the appointment of tribal welfare commissioner for proper implementation of the welfare scheme of tribal. During his speech an uproar took place in the house when he mentioned the name of RSS alleging Raghubar Das led the previous government to hand over schools to NGOs that guided it to spread its ideology in rural areas.
Independent legislator Saryu Roy asked the government to reconsider the plan of providing fortified Take Home Ration to pregnant women saying previous experiences suggested that it is not beneficial for Jharkhand.
BJP legislator Aparan Sen Gupta demanded one ‘all women police station’ behind three lakh population as promised in the manifesto of the ruling parties.
