New Delhi, March 8: A group of 50 aspiring women political leaders were awarded on Monday for successfully completing the first-ever training programme to equip women enter politics and run for office at state and national levels.
Titled ‘She Leads’, the virtual training programme was conducted over 35 hours during the course of seven days starting from February 24.
Conducted by Stree-Shakti – the Parallel Force, in collaboration with the Indian School of Democracy, the Netri Foundation and Shakti, with the support of the Chevening Alumni Project Fund (CAPF), the programme aims at strengthening the political leadership of women in the country.
The first batch was a diverse group of trainees from 13 states, including students, teachers, lawyers as well as a doctor.
Time has come for women to claim their political space. I hope women will aspire and lead the country, said Rekha Modi, founder of Stree Shakti-the Parallel Force.
According to a statement by the programme organisers, the first part of the training included a panel of speakers and experts like senior politician and former Uttarakhand governor Margaret Alva, Lok Sabha member Heena Gavit, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ghanshyam Towari, and former Congress MP M V Rajeev Gowda.
Experts from the fields of journalism and social work also took sessions as part of the programme, the statement added.
Talking about the negligible space occupied by women in politics, Kanksshi Agarwal, founder of Netri Foundation, said that “women are visible when they are on the forefront, but they are invisibilised through the complex structures of power, and that is when I felt that this a fight that needs to be fought.
We need to put more women in politics, because we are not being represented enough, Agarwal said.
The second part of the training that was held on March 6 included sessions by Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Prithvi Reddy and Bandana Kumari, as well as former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Archana Chitnis.
As part of the ‘She Leads’ initiative, a certificate course for young women in colleges and universities for them to consider politics as a career option has also been started.
Delhi University’s Miranda House is the first college that has started the three-month programme.
“This will help break two stereotypes. One that politics is a dirt word, and second that women are not meant for politics,” said Bijayalaxmi Nanda, principal of Miranda House. (PTI)
