April 27, 2019, Global Shapers Lucknow along with Vidyasthali Inter College organized a panel discussion under the aegis of India’s Daughters’ Campaign. The topic of this panel discussion was ‘’Why has the women’s’ movement in India failed to create a political front?” the discussion also explored why the political parties are not addressing this gap and consolidating the women vote bank?

Nitin Mittal – Youth Front Coordinator Bharatiya Janta Party, Geeta Pandey – State Treasurer of women wing and former member of the state women commission, Samajwadi Party, and Sadaf Jafar – Congress spokesman, along with Reshma – a member of Sheroes Hangout were present on the panel.

Students from Vidysthali School performed a street play on the condition of women in India. The panel first responded, ’Why has the women’s’ movement in India failed to create a political front?” The panel moderator, Ruchika from AFP asked, “how many females are a contesting election in comparison to their male counterpart in their party.” None of the members on the panel were certain about this number. Nitin Mittal from BJP exclaimed that his party has the maximum number of female candidates. The moderator later informed the panel that none of the political parties represented in the panel had more than 20 percent women in the election while almost all supported the 30 percent reservation in the parliament.

In the discussion, Sadaf Jafar, spokesperson congress, said, “Women’s two big weapons are education and employment; when a girl is educated, she will be aware of her rights and then find the freedom to make their decisions.”  She also advised students, to start working on breaking systemic patriarchy in their home and redefine cultural norms. Adding to her point Nitin Mittal, Youth Front Coordinator for Bharatiya Janta Party, said, “many times women do not get the opportunity and many times their rights are exploited, the main reason behind this is they are not aware of their rights.” Geeta Pandey said “When will talk about equality why are we asking for 33% reservation we should demand 50% reservation for women. In our party, we will try and work on it.”