Women MPs quest to stop insults and harassment in Parliament 

The Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus recently submitted a proposal to Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne to amend Standing Orders of Parliament in order to prevent women lawmakers from being  subject to verbal harassment or insults within the parliamentary chamber. The women MPs pointed out that the verbal harassment  targeting women MPs was on the increase and was curtailing their right to freely express their views in the House and participate in politics. The woman MPs want the section in Standing Orders on “Discipline in Parliament” amended to deal with this issue.

The fact that women MPs have had to take this up underscores that women representatives even in the highest elected body in the land face many challenges, including their right to be heard being impeded. The current Parliament 

 has the highest number of women MPs, 21 out of 225. It is more than in previous Parliament, but still grossly inadequate. There is reluctance by political parties to nominate women and there is also reluctance by women to come into politics given the many challenges they face.

The Prime Minister is a woman in this Parliament while there are several women who are ministers and Deputy Ministers. This is also a country which has had the world’s first woman Prime Minister and a woman executive president. At least when it comes to electing a person to the topmost post in the county, voters have shown gender is not an issue, but when it comes to electing MPs, it’s a different story. The Proportional Representation system for electing MPs is a dog-eat-dog system and only the strongest and loudest usually make it past the winning rope. Most women are too civil to engage in the antics that their male colleagues adopt during the election campaigns and election results show that.

Now the elected women MPs have to put up a fight inside the House as can be seen by their proposal to the Speaker to amend Standing Orders so that they don’t face verbal abuse and harassment.

There have been numerous instances in the past where women MPs have spoken out against harassment at the hands of their male colleagues. These complaints are usually settled through ‘consensus’ and soon forgotten. But the problem hasn’t gone away.

What women parliamentarians face in the House is but a snapshot of the larger picture that women in general face in the country. Last week there was a big hue and cry over the first batch of women bus conductors being appointed but this isn’t the first time that women were appointed to such positions. The difficulty is not giving the appointments, it is ensuring they can remain on the job. If they’re not assured of their safety and security, it’s like many of the women may not be on the job for long.

Recently the Chairperson of Sri Lanka’s newly formed National Women’s Commission (NWC), Dr. Ramani Jayasundere  resigned. Her decision was attributed to administrative interference, which was compromising the Commission’s autonomy as well as the Commission being unable to function due to the absence of a dedicated budget, independent premises, and recruited staff.

The Government has been rather boastful about having a woman Prime Minister, but that’s not all it takes to improve the lot of women in the country and  we have a very long way to go. The JVP, the ruling National People’s Power’s (NPP) main constituent party is a male dominated entity and it is unlikely any of its leaders will do much for women’s  rights other than talk about it. If there is some sincerity in securing the rights of women, a good place to start would be to ensure that at least in Parliament women MPs get to speak without feeling insecure.