New Party Launched To Fight For 50 Per Cent Women’s Reservation In Politics; To Contest 283 Lok Sabha Seats In 2019

For the first time in the country, an all-women political party - National Women’s Party (NWP) - was launched on Monday (21 January) in Mumbai. The party will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on 283 out of the 545 seats, Business Standard has reported.

The NWP, which is described as a “party of mothers”, has been founded by a doctor and social activist, Dr Shwetha Shetty, and will try to achieve 50 per cent reservation for women in the lower house of the parliament.

“This party is a historic step in our mission to ensure equal representation for women in parliament. Our ideology is to remove gender disparity in politics and thus create equal importance for females in patriarchal Indian society,” Shetty was quoted in the report as saying.

Shwetha said the fight to get reservation for women in parliament was now more than two decades old, but males were still dominating decision-making in politics.

“With this initiative, the NWP plans to create an environment for the full development of women, enabling them to achieve empowerment,” she said.

The party will soon launch a mobile application called “Mahila Rakshak”, with the aim of assisting women in distress. It will also open a “youth parliament”, which will be a “political school” for women where “academic and practical training” will be imparted so that they can get involved in the country’s political process, said Shetty.