Affirmative Legislation for Women’s Equitable Political Representation

India at 75, with a mere 14.4% of women in the Parliament, belies the constitutional promise of gender equality. Even as the Women’s Representation Bill gathers dust, WISCOMP organized a dialogue in collaboration with IIC, discussing alternatives to affirmative legislation proposed by Rami Chhabra, a pioneering journalist. This dialogue was convened in November 2022.

Rami Chhabra’s insightful presentation called for the feminization of political action, re-introduction of double-member constituencies, and delimitation exercise to downsize constituencies. The discussion focused on the trajectory of the Women’s Representation Bill and measures for recalibrating accountability and equity in politics. Introductory remarks were delivered by Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Director of WISCOMP, and the dialogue concluded with illuminating insights shared by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Administrator, Diplomat and Governor of West Bengal.

Rajiv Mehrotra has been a student of His Holiness for forty years. He travelled with His Holiness for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and helped establish the Foundation with the prize money. He serves as its Secretary & Trustee.

He was educated at St Stephen’s College and the Universities of Oxford and Columbia. He has authored nine books that have been published in more than 50 editions and languages. These include Mind of The Guru, Thakur-a Biography of Sri Ramakrishna and The Essential Dalai Lama. As an independent documentary filmmaker, commissioning editor and producer, Rajiv Mehrotra has won 32 National Awards in 34 years from the President of India. He serves as the Managing Trustee of The Public Service Broadcasting Trust, winning more than 300 awards worldwide from over 1,700 film festival selections.

For decades, he was a familiar face as an anchor on public television in India. He was nominated a Global Leader for Tomorrow by The World Economic Forum at Davos where he twice addressed plenary sessions. He is frequently invited to talk about His Holiness, on Buddhism, inter-faith harmony and issues related to the media. Rajiv Mehrotra has served on numerous Committees and Boards. He was a Judge for the Templeton Prize for Religion.

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Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath is the Founder and Director of WISCOMP. She is Chair, Board of Governors, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), and Principal Emerita of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she served as Principal for 26 years (1988-2014). She has been a member of the Advisory Board on the Planning Commission of India and the University Grants Commission. Dr. Gopinath was the first woman to be nominated to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India. She is a member of multi-track peace initiatives and people-to-people dialogues in South Asia. She serves on numerous Boards including the United Nations Peace University in Costa Rica, the Geneva-based Nonviolent Peaceforce, Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, among others.

Dr. Gopinath has written and lectured across the world on issues of Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding, Women’s Leadership, Education for Peace, International Relations and Diplomacy. She serves on the governing boards of prominent research institutes, NGOs and educational institutions and has developed programs and curricula on educating for peace in several universities, colleges and schools. In recognition of her contribution to the field of women’s education and empowerment, she has received several awards including the Padma Shri Award from the President of India; Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Award; Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Education; among others. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree by La Trobe University, Australia; the Distinguished Alumna Award by Lady Shri Ram College for Women, for meritorious contribution in the field of Education; and the Nirbhaya Puraskar 2017 by OYSS Women (Odisa Yuva Sanskrutik Sansad) for exemplary courage and accomplishment in the field of Education.

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Seema Kakran is Deputy Director at WISCOMP with over two decades of experience of designing gender trainings and conducting research on issues of inclusion and diversity. A specialist in public policy analysis, political theory and evaluation methodologies, she holds a Graduate Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She has also attended courses in Evaluation Methodology at INCORE, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Gender Evaluation Methodology and Participatory Evaluation Training of Community of Evaluators (A South Asia Network). Seema has previously taught Political Science at the University of Delhi and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA. She has completed pre-doctoral work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and holds M.Phil and Masters’ degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Delhi. Her research focuses on gender equality and socio-political conflicts in India.

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Manjri Sewak is Assistant Director of WISCOMP, currently on sabbatical pursuing a PhD in Education for Peace at the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has been associated with WISCOMP since its inception in 1999. A writer and trainer in the field of peacebuilding, Manjri holds expertise in conflict transformation and curriculum development. In 2004–5, she was part of a team that designed a Diploma Program in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she later served as a Visiting Faculty. Manjri has conducted peacebuilding workshops for university and school students across the country. She is the author of Multi-Track Diplomacy between India and Pakistan: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Security (2005), Bridging the Divide: Peacebuilding for a New Generation (2014), and co-author of Transcending Conflict: A Resource Book on Conflict Transformation (2003).

Manjri is a recipient of the RCSS-NTI Research Award and the Fulbright Conflict Resolution Scholarship. She holds a Masters’ degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, USA, and a Bachelors’ degree in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for Women.

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Sumona DasGupta is a Political Scientist, independent Researcher and a Senior Visiting Fellow with Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). She is a Member of Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, and the Chair of International Advisory Group at International Conflict Research Institute, University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. She has written extensively on conflict transformation, critical security studies, governance and politics in South Asia, particularly on Jammu and Kashmir and gender issues as a cross-cutting theme.

Dr. DasGupta was a Visiting Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2014 and Lead Researcher for PRIA on the European Union Research Project on Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in Europe and India. Previously, she served as Assistant Director at WISCOMP.

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Dr. Mallika Joseph is a Senior Fellow at WISCOMP. She serves as Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Sciences (NIAS), Bangalore and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi. Until recently, she served as Policy Adviser and Regional Coordinator for the Asia Pacific at The Hague-based Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). Before that, she was a Professor and Head at the Department of National Security Studies, Central University of Jammu. Earlier, she was the Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Sri Lanka, and the Director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS).

She is part of many global and regional networks working on sustainable development goals, gender, security sector, human security, conflict prevention, regional architectures, and global governance. She has a Ph.D. in international relations and has worked on various issues relating to South Asian security. Some of her recent books/edited volumes include – Rise of China and India: Implications for the Asia Pacific; India’s Economic growth: Opportunities and Challenges for the Region; Demography in South Asia: Implications for the Regional and Global Political Narratives; and Reintroducing Human Security in South Asia. Her latest book is South Asian Perspectives on Sustainable Development and Gender Equality (2021). She is currently working on an edited volume on “Framing Democracy: Civil Society Perspectives from South Asia.”

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Nilova Roy Chaudhury is a senior journalist with over three decades of experience working as a Reporter, Writer, Analyst and Editor with some of the world’s leading print news publications, including The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Hindustan Times, the Statesman and the Associated Press, among others. She founded The Indian Review of Global Affairs, an online foreign policy news magazine, and was its Chief Editor for five years. Part of that tenure was with the Symbiosis International University’s School of International Studies, to whom the web magazine was co-opted, as a special resource for its students. She helped set up the SSIS, and has taught and mentored students in some aspects of foreign policy. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at WISCOMP and has actively engaged in initiatives on Journalism and Peace-Building.

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Shilpi Shabdita is Program Officer at WISCOMP where she handles programs on Conflict Transformation, Gender Justice and Education for Peace. She has a Masters’ degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, USA, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri Ram College, India. Previously, she worked at Heartland Alliance, USA on migration issues, and consulted with Afghan’s for Progressive Thinking, Afghanistan on project design and grant writing for youth-led dialogue initiatives. Shilpi has also worked in Uganda at the Justice and Reconciliation Project, where she collated a ‘Community Memory Book’ documenting war memories and justice needs of former combatants and survivors of war; led campaigns for families of disappeared persons; and authored USAID reports on regional reconciliation.

Previously, Shilpi served as a Consultant at WISCOMP working on the ‘Education for Peace’ initiative with youth leaders and educators from New Delhi and Kashmir, which focused on inter-regional dialogue, conflict transformation skill building, and collaborative peace projects.

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Diksha Poddar has been working with WISCOMP on its programs on youth and peacebuilding, youth countering violence, and engendering higher education spaces. Currently, she is working towards the third edition of WISCOMP Saahas Awards on women building peace at the grassroots in South Asia. Diksha is also a Research Scholar at the Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she is studying the contours of youth, arts and peacebuilding in conflict areas for her doctoral thesis. Her interest lies within the intersecting themes of gender, youth, creative arts and peacebuilding. Her recent publications include a review article titled 'Youth and Arts: Experiments, Synergies and Critiques' in Journal of Applied Youth Studies (2024); a chapter on 'Youth and Peacebuilding' in Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict (3rd ed., 2022); and a co-authored book chapter titled 'Piecing up Peace in Kashmir: Feminist Perspectives on Education for Peace' in Feminist Solutions to Ending War (ed.), Pluto Publications: London (2021), among others. She has presented her research at several national and international conferences organized by German Association for Conflict and Peace Studies; Nordic Youth Research Symposium at Tampere University, Finland; International Feminist Journal of Politics; and others. Diksha holds an MPhil from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; a Masters in Development Studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi and has completed her graduation in Economics and Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. In addition, she has completed post-graduate diplomas in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from University of Delhi and International Law, Institutions and Diplomacy from Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi.

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Kiran Koshy is Administrative officer at WISCOMP. He has over a decade of experience in Healthcare, Pharma and Digital Media. He has worked with Caritas India for an Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction Project at Rukem Peo, Himachal Pradesh and with the Association of Sisters of Destitute at Jivodaya Hospital, Delhi. Kiran has a Masters’ degree in Business Administration from Sikkim Manipal University and a Bachelors’ degree in Commerce from Mahatma Gandhi University.

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Sree Kumari is Executive Assistant at WISCOMP for the last 16 years. Previously, she worked as a Primary School Teacher and Head Librarian at the Kerala Education Society, Delhi. She is a poet and a short story writer in Malayalam. Sree holds a Bachelors’ degree in Chemistry and Library Sciences.

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Akashleena Chakrabarti is an Program Associate at WISCOMP where she curates sessions for the virtual Book Café series and facilitates interactive spaces of dialogue for young scholars, academicians and practitioners. She holds a Bachelors’ degree in Political Science and a Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peace Building from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, and a Masters’ degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi. Akashleena’s research interests lie at the intersection of political theory, pedagogy and performance studies.

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