ITANAGAR, 20 Jan: Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) on Saturday urged the central Congress party leadership to take the polygamy-related issues in Arunachal Pradesh more seriously in order to promote gender equality in the state.
The APWWS said that polygamous practices in Arunachal are rising alarmingly, causing a negative impact on the state’s social fabric.
“These practices not only lead to the exploitation of women but also contribute to the degradation of gender equality,” APWWS president Kani Nada Maling wrote to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
“It is disheartening to note that the use of women as mere tools for vote banks has become a troubling trend, a matter against which we have steadfastly advocated since our inception in 1979,” Maling said.
She said that “the recent setback in the form of the withdrawal of the Arunachal Pradesh Monogamy Election Bill 2023 on September 6, 2023, is a matter of great disappointment for us.”
The bill introduced by Congress party MLA Ninong Ering aimed to make individuals with only one spouse eligible to run for elections, she said.
“It was intended to bring about crucial amendments to the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, and the inclusion of the Panchayat Act, 1997, and the Municipal Act, 2007,” the APWWS president said.
She said that the bill was not even placed for debate and discussion in the floor of the house which is a curtailment of the voice of half of the women population in the state.
Maling added that actively supporting the eligibility of individuals with one spouse to run for elections would be a significant step towards the empowerment and betterment of women in our state.
