My Mother and Women's Quota in Parliament

Yesterday or maybe day before, I was stumped by my mother with a critical question. In the evening I was watching the news bulletin on NDTV which was airing the fight for women's quota in the Parliament. My mother was chatting with one of the bhabis from the neighbourhood. My mother suddenly started laughing, forcing me to ask "What happened?" The conversation that followed is as under:

Mother: What is this fight all about?
Me: This is about quota for women in Parliament.
Mother: What is the current quota?
Me: Nil
Mother: Then how are these females there (Refering to women MPs standing for the camera)
Me: They are either elected for Lok Sabha or nominated to Rajya Sabha.
Mother: If they are elected why can't other women be elected?

She promptly left to make tea for the bhabi. Her abrupt ending of the subject left me wondering, about the apathy of a middle-class lady towards women's quota in Parliament. To take this further I nudged the bhabi who has done her masters in Economics. She also laughed and responded by saying, "Bhaiya we don't have so much faltu time for all these because after this I have to go home and take care of household chores. This is OK with ladies like these who have enough backing to support them and also they need something to spend their time with."

Does this mean that a bunch of ladies (some of whom are not even elected) can decide on the future structure of Parliament? To my mind, whoever is raising such issue and wasting critical time of Parliament should be asked to first visit some remote places in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, NE, Bihar and MP. Look at the plight of women there. They don't have clothes to cover themselves. Women there are grossly under-nurished and a majority of them suffer from some disease or the other. My humble submission to all the honourable MPs who wish to do something for the upliftment of women, please don't waste your time and the valuable time of Parliament. There are pressing problems which needs to be taken up on priority and more importantly there are enough women competent enough to compete for the Parliamentary seats. Please understand that naturally women have the inherent talent to manage the resources for the desired objective. Therefore, if women decide to increasingly participate in Parliamentary proceedings, they will.

It is actually not surprising to see people like Brinda Karat advocating this reservation policy because for people like her India is only the metros and upmarket life-style. A simple question--"What would have happened to people like these if nomination to the Upper House becomes stringent?" Please do not look for short-cuts and frivolous issues...let us talk and work for real issues.