Editorial
Gender discrimination in elected bodies!
How could they go together?
Even in our context marked by forced cohabitation of mutually exclusive concepts, one is bound to sit up and take note of the gender bias that was about to be officially built into the elected city corporations. Thanks to a circular issued by the local government and rural ministry a year ago, women ward commissioners of Khulna City Corporation felt discriminated against their male counterparts. They were being denied the rights to take part in census and issue nationality certificates or reference letters which were clearly regarded as an exclusive male preserve. Righteously indignant, the women ward commissioners filed a writ before the High Court (HC) challenging the circular in a laudatory move to get redress. The HC, in what must go down as a milestone judgement, overruled the discriminatory circular and asked the government to be evenhanded in the delegation of authority to women and male ward commissioners.They might have come on a reserved quota -- for every three wards there is a seat for women -- but the fact is they are no co-optees; they are representatives elected from amongst the women candidates. How can they be divested of the powers and functions due to the general seat winners viz. their male counterparts as though it's another male domain. The overriding fact is that the city corporations are elected entities where gender inequality must be totally repugnant to the very character of representative public bodies. Three articles of the Constitution, such as 28 (4), 28 (1) and 28 (2) will have been impinged upon if the circular were allowed to rule the roost. The first article provides for a special space to women; the second forbids male-female discrimination; and the third one upholds complete equality between man and woman. That which was designed to empower women should not be allowed to disempower them through circulars and edicts in dissonance with the Constitution. The HC verdict should help the cause of gender equality in other areas of concern for women. It has done a world of good to the cause of women's empowerment.
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