Media Release: Shakti -"Political Power To Women"Shakti - Call Your MP All Indi a CampaignDec 27th Saturday 7 PM - 9.30 PM

Shakti - "Political Power to Women" nationwide “Call your MP” campaign on 27th December 2018, 7 pm - 9.30 pm saw stupendous success!
This India-wide unique campaign had volunteers, both women and men from Shakti, various individual volunteers and groups across the country reach out to elected Members of Parliament to table and pass the Women’s Reservation Bill. 70 years after a democratic republic, with a meagre ~10% women only in State Assemblies & Parliament, women are the largest demographic that is least represented. Since this winter session is the final Parliament session in this term, this campaign was run to put pressure on all parties to get this bill passed at least now, nearly 30 years after it was first mooted.
Over 500 callers including farmers, women in corporations, rape survivors, students, women in IT, rehabilitated manual scavengers, women in media, bankers, trainers, researchers, civil society activists, domestic workers, advertising professionals, entrepreneurs etc. participated in the campaign.
This consisted of individual inspired volunteers and over 20 groups across India. The list of groups is mentioned below.
Armed with a list of MP contacts for the states, and sample call scripts in various languages from website: http://politicalshakti-india.org, callers engaged in diallingMPs for 2.5 hours.
MPs from Jammu & Kashmir through Tamil Nadu and Assam to Gujarat were reached, spread across 21of the 29 states, including Lakshadweep.
In the the short span of 2.5 hours, the Shakti - Call Your MP campaign called 373 Lok Sabha MPs, of which 128 MPs answered. 126 of the 128 MPs said they support the Bill and will try to raise it in Parliament this Winter Session. More numbers are still flowing in from volunteer callers across the country. Some mentioned that while they support it, it is up to their parties to decide to table the Bill. Many MPs were called by multiple callers; 258 MPs did not pick up the phone or were not reachable. A few MPs had the courtesy to call back when they missed the call, and some had lengthy conversations. The list of supporting MPs is attached.
Tara Krishnaswamy, the co-founder of Shakti on the success of the campaign said, “This is a landmark India wide effort for women's political rights with a simultaneousoutreach to 126 elected representatives within just 2.5 hours. It is a thumping success to hear MPs who represent the voices of a whopping 192 million people of India say YES to the Women's Reservation Bill (16 lakhs voters per constituency.) This includes MPs from 23 major political parties other than the BJP supporting the Bill. Many non-BJP MPs including from state parties mentioned that they have been raising the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, including on Dec 27th but that they were not permitted by the House to discuss it. What is stopping the ruling party from passing the Bill when the most complicated Aadhaar, GST & controversial Instant Triple Talaq have been passed? We hope that the 126 MPs will discuss with each other and aggregate the demand in the House, with time running out Shakti will continue to ramp up this campaign until women get their political due."
Bhim Raskar of RSCD (Resource and Support Centre for Development) Maharashtra, said, "This was an amazing campaign and scores of our Panchayat members and teams participated. The real challenge is to maintain and create more pressure till the bill is passed."
Shree DN, of the Shakti Team, one of the callers said, "Now when they say the session is getting over, and only budget session is left. We then ask for a joint special session exclusively for the WRB. After all, they do it when they want, now let them do it because people want it. "
MP Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi, of AAP Punjab who had missed the call, courteously called back to said: "Despite many parties raising it in the House today, the Speaker was not giving us an opportunity to discuss the WRB. We plan to meet the Speaker in her chambers today and persuade her."
MP PK Sreemathi, CPI(M) Kerala said, "We planned to organise a protest in Lok Sabha on the WRB tomorrow or the day after."
MP Farooq Abdullah of the NC, not only agreed with 33% reservation for women in the Assemblies and Parliament, he asked for an official letter from Shakti to his office.
MP and Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi not only agreed with the demand to pass the WRB, she said "We should also persuade for 33% seats for women within political parties." when called by Archana Jha of Centre for Social Research, a partner in the Shakti: Call Your MP campaign.
MP Dr Prabhas Kumar of the BJD, also called back when he finished his meeting and said that, "Not only is BJD pushing this agenda with the Centre and states, and plans to meet the President on this, it is crucial for citizen groups like Shakti to raise the demand and create public momentum."
Shakti is a non partisan inclusive platform of women across who have joined hands, regardless of region, caste, creed, ideology and setting aside our differences with single minded objective to get more women elected as MLAs and MPs. Shakti calls upon all men and women that believe in fair representation in politics to join us on bit.ly/shakti-india
Contact: Tara KrishnaswamyNumber: +91 9341941945
We request you to kindly cover this campaign. Thank you for your support!

List of states where MPs were reached: Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep

List of Shakti - Call Your MP Campaign partner groups:

Telangana Joint Action Committee
Jan Sahas
Women Power Connect
Centre for Social Research
Ekal Nari Shakti Sanghattan
Resource and Support Centre for Development
Global Concerns India
Stree Jagriti Samiti
Youth for Seva
Meghshala
Voice of People
VFSTR - Vignan University
RTE Forum
Campaign for Electoral Reform
Rural Education and Development Society
TEDS Trust
Avantika Foundation
National Adivasi Solidarity Council

List of MPs who were reached and said YES to WRB being tabled & passed is below the 2 attached pictures:

Farooq Abdullah	NC
S.P. Muddahanumegowda	INC
Bhagwanth Khuba	BJP
Shivkumar Udasi	BJP
V S Ugrappa	INC
Anant Kumar Hegde	BJP
DK Suresh	INC
Shivarame Gowda	JDS
P. C. Gaddigoudar	BJP
Chandrappa BN	INC
Ramesh Chandrappa	BJP
Shobha Karandlaje	BJP
Prahlad Joshi	BJP
Veerappa Moily	INC
PC Mohan	BJP
Suresh Angadi	BJP
K H Muniyappa	BJP
Pratap Simha	BJP
Rajeev Gowda	INC

Riti Pathak	BJP
Thangso Baite	INC
Vincent Pala	INC
Dr Prabhas Kumar	BJD
Shakuntala Laguri	BJD
Sarojini Hembram	BJD
R Radhakrishnan	All India NR Congress
Dr. Dharam Vira Gandhi	AAP
Ramcharan Bohra	BJP
C Gopalakrishnan	AIADMK
Maragatham Kumarvel	AIADMK
Dr Anbumani Ramdoss	PMK
B Senguttuvan	AIADMK
K Ashok Kumar	AIADMK
R K Bharathi Mohan	AIADMK
G Hari	AIADMK
J Jayakumar (Jayavardhan)	AIADMK
K Parasuraman	AIADMK
Dr K Kamaraj	AIADMK
C Mahendran	AIADMK
R P Marutharaja	AIADMK
T N Jayasingh	AIADMK
R Parthiban	AIADMK
A Anwar Raajaa	AIADMK
T Radhakrishnan	AIADMK
S Rajendran	AIADMK
S R Vijayakumar	AIADMK
Selvakumar	AIADMK
Gopal K	AIADMK
P Kumar	AIADMK
M Vasanthi	AIADMK

Dayakar Pasunoori	TRS
Bheemrao Baswanthrao Patil	TRS
A P Jithender Redy	TRS
Ch Malla Reddy	TDP
Konda Vishveshwar Reddy	TRS
Asaduddin Owaisi	MIM
Sukender Reddy	TRS
Boora Narsaiah	TRS
Vinod Kumar	TRS
K Keshava Rao	TRS
Nandi Yelliah	TRS
Kotha Prabhakar Reddy	TRS
Jitendra Chaudhury	CPM
Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel	SP
Dr Sugata Bose	TMC
Dr Abhijit Mukherjee	INC
Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar	TMC
Sajda Ahmed	TMC
Dibyendu Adhikari	TMC
DR Ratna Dey Nag	TMC

D Ravindra Babu Pandulu	TDP
Gokaraju Ganga Raju	BJP
Kristappa Nimmala	TDP
Sriram Malathi	TDP
Konakalla Narayana Sreenivas Rao	TDP
N Sivaprasad	TDP
Murali Mohan	TDP
Pradhan Baruah,	BJP
Kaushalendra Kumar	JDU
Meenakshi Lekhi	BJP
Maheish Girri	BJP
Dr Udit Raj	BJP
Sanjay Singh	AAP
Kirit Premjibhai Solanki	BJP
Ramesh Chander Kaushik	BJP
Vishnu Dayal Ram	BJP

PK Sreemathi	CPM
Sampath Anirudhan	CPM
CN Jayadevan	CPM
Innocent	Independent
ET Mohammed Basheer	IUML
Anto Anthony	INC
P Karunakaran	CPM
M B Rajesh	CPM
Faizal	NCP

Sharadkumar Maruti Bansode,	BJP
Supriya Sule	NCP
Prof Ravindra gaikwad	Shiv Sena
Dhananjay Mahadik	NCP
A T Nana Patil	BJP
Vinayak B Raut	Shiv Sena
Krupal Tumane	Shiv Sena
Rajan Baburao	Shiv Sena
Bhavana Gawali	Shiv Sena
Raju Shetti	Swabhimana Paksha
Sambaji Raje Bhonsle	BJP
Ashok Chavan	INC
Hansraj Ahir	BJP
Adhalrao Patil	Shiv Sena
Dilipkumar Gandhi	BJP
Ashok Nete	BJP
Bandi Jadhav	Shiv Sena
Manohar Naik	NCP
Neelay Naik	BJP
Adsul, Shri Anandrao	Shiv Sena
Anil (Alias Padmakar) Gulabrao Shirole	BJP
Shri Harishchandra Deoram Chavan,	BJP
Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre,	BJP
Sunil Gaikwad	BJP
Dr. Heena Vijaykumar Gavit	BJP
Smt. Raksha Nikhil Khadse	BJP
Shri, Madhukarrao Yashwantrao	NCP
Shri Sadashiv Kisan Lokhande	Shiv Sena
Kapil Moreshwar Patil	BJP
Arvind Sawant	BJP
Ramesh Shewale	Shiv Sena
Valse Patil	NCP
Vinay Sahasrabudhe	BJP

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