KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 25 (MExN): A meeting of apex tribe women organization leaders, along with the Naga Mothers Association (NMA), Watsü Mungdang, Eastern Naga Women Organization (ENWO), Naga Women Hoho Dimapur (NWHD) and Tenyimi Women Organisation (TWO), has decided to move the petition on the issue of 33% reservation of women in Municipal bodies to the Supreme Court of India.
This was the result of a meeting convened by the Joint Action Committee on Women Reservation (JACWR) today, September 25, at the Red Cross Complex, Kohima. A representation from the JACWR said that the House deliberated on the latest Resolution passed by the Nagaland Legislative Assembly to exempt Nagaland from Part IX (A) of the Constitution, denying Naga women reservation in urban bodies.
The women leaders were unanimous in their stand that “the Naga Legislators had betrayed Naga women by denying women their constitutional rights to 33% reservation in Municipalities, without even implementing the same in Nagaland”. They strongly questioned the role of the sixty legislators and the Select Committee in “subverting Constitutional provisions under the guise of customary and social practice and misinterpreting Article 371 (A)”.
They condemned the fact that “the State Government sought the opinion of only men folk and ignored 50 % of the population - women’s - voices as well as numerous representations from apex Tribe women’s organizations in the state over the long drawn issue”.
In an important move, the House resolved to proceed with the Petition filed in the Supreme Court of India against the Division Bench High Court Judgement Order and “give full unstinting support to the JACWR”.
To mark its strong protest against gender discrimination, denial of Constitutional rights and grave injustice done to generations of Naga women in the passage of the Assembly Resolution, the House resolved for a Black Day by holding protest Rallies in all eleven District Headquarters/Sub Divisions simultaneously on Monday, October 1 from 9 a.m. It will culminate in submission of a Memorandum to the Governor of Nagaland in the State Capital, as well as District authorities respectively.
To reiterate the political stand for ensuring spaces in decision making bodies, several short term and long term strategies were deliberated on, which resolved to ensure constitutional rights and international provisions for women in the State of Nagaland.
