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NCW seeks link between parties' recognition and tickets to women

The National Commission for Women has recommended to the Election Commission to link recognition for political parties to their giving more tickets to women candidates.

In a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill during a meeting in New Delhi yesterday, commission chairperson Vibha Parthasarthi said the Election Commission needed to take some concrete steps to enable women to find space in the political decision-making process of the country.

Among these, the NCW suggested that political parties be asked to allot more tickets to women and their recognition by the Election Commission should somehow be linked to this condition.

Also, to enable women to contest elections, a ''realistic ceiling'' should be placed on election expenditure.

A code of conduct should be enforced to disallow candidates with criminal records to contest elections, the NCW suggested. Also, in view of the violence that generally prevailed during electioneering, women candidates should be given special police protection, it added.

Besides members of the NCW, representatives of various women's groups, including the All India Women's Conference, Joint Women's Programme, Mahila Dakshata Samiti, YWCA and National Alliance of Women, met members of the Election Commission.

The NCW has set up a political core group consisting of various women's organisations to carry on a vigorous campaign to increase women's participation in the electoral process.

UNI

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