Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians from India join second CWP virtual roundtable on gender sensitive Parliaments for the India Region

Spotlight on the India Region as Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians continue virtual roundtable discussions on gender sensitive Parliaments

The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network hosted its second virtual roundtable on gender sensitive Parliaments for the CPA India Region. The roundtable highlights the important issue of gender equality, serving as a great platform for inspiring discussions.

The Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from the CPA India Region agreed on the need for increased gender sensitivity and inclusivity within their Parliaments and discussed their existing ambitions and the various challenges to progress.

In her opening remarks, CWP Steering Committee Member for the India Region and Member of the Lok Sabha, Smt. Sunita Duggal underlined the record number of women Parliamentarians in the current Lok Sabha (79 women or 14.63%), and the high number of women leaders in local government as well as a wide range of other sectors in India, including in engineering, science and technology. In addition, she highlighted that India has seen a paradigm shift in moving away from talking about women’s development and towards ‘women-led development’.

The forum also gave attendees the opportunity to hear from Dr Sarah Childs, Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London, and the author of the CWP Gender Sensitising Parliaments Guidelines: Standards and a Checklist for Parliamentary Change, on the various possible implementation strategies for adopting gender sensitive practices in their respective Parliaments.

Women Parliamentarians from the CPA India Region also highlighted some of the challenges that women across the region face that hinder their ability to be effective and successful women in Parliament.

The following CPA Branches were represented at the CWP virtual roundtable: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, India Union, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh. The CPA Deputy Secretary-General, Mr Jarvis Matiya also attended the CWP roundtable.

The CWP virtual roundtable series promotes regional discussions on gender sensitive Parliaments across the Commonwealth by facilitating dialogue and exchanging best practices. The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network is holding further virtual roundtables.

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The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) was founded in 1989 to increase the number of female elected representatives in 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and to ensure that women’s issues are brought to the fore in parliamentary debate and legislation. The network campaigns for gender equality in all spheres. For media enquiries, please contact communications@cpahq.org.