Punjab: Congress, AAP to woo women with separate manifestoes

A senior Congress politician said their gender manifesto would be released along with the main manifesto. “We will be promising 33 per cent reservation in state government jobs for women in Punjab. Apart from that, the education for the girl child will be completely free of cost till Ph.D level,” he said.

Congress will also be including skill development training and self-employment for the widows of farmers suicides in its gender manifesto, as per sources.

Apart from this, Congress has also included setup of ‘Crisis Centers’ across Punjab where women affected by any sorts of violence can approach for medical and legal help.

“At these centers, women affected by any sort of violence will be given free legal and medical aid. The Punjab State Commission for Women will be totally revamped and given teeth to act,” said Congress source.

Manpreet Badal, convenor of Congress’ manifesto committee said, “Not only a manifesto for women, but there will be something for every section of people in our manifesto. We are also coming up with police reforms.”

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be invited to release Congress’ manifesto in Punjab. Badal said, “It will be our pleasure if he agrees to launch our document. We shall be inviting him and also document will be submitted to him before release for his opinion. Whatever changes he will wish to make, they will be done. We are quite sure that he will not decline our request.”

The AAP has claimed that their manifesto for women would be better. Baljinder Kaur, AAP’s women’s wing chief said, “From safety and dignity of women to making her financially independent, we will include everything in our women’s manifesto. Unlike Congress, our manifesto hasn’t been made sitting in AC rooms but by talking to women at grassroots. It will be launched after Dalits’ manifesto and we are still in process of holding dialogues with women. Like Delhi, installing CCTV cameras in buses and other places will be top priority.”