Women activists on Sunday demanded that the number of reserved seats for women in parliament should be increased to one-third of the elected seats.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in the city, they also said that the ruling Awami League in its election manifesto had promised that the number of reserved seats for women would be increased to 33 per cent but still there was no progress in this respect.
The conference was organised by the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad to press home their demand for increase in reserved seats, direct election to the reserved seats and demarcation of constituencies.
At present there are 50 reserved seats for women in parliament.
The parishad president, Ayesha Khanam, said women would remain marginalised until they were able to participate in the mainstream politics and decision-making.
She said that the Mahila Parishad had distributed 18,000 leaflets with their demands to parliament members but received no positive response from them as yet.
The parishad leader Rekha Chowdhury said that participation of women in mainstream politics and policy-making was important for ensuring democratic governance, transparency, accountability, good government and justice.
They also urged the government to strengthen democracy and parliamentary democracy.
The press conference was attended, among others, by the parishad general secretary Maleka Begum, vice- president Adlin Malakar and Nahar Ahmed and assistant general secretary Masuda Rehana.
-With New Age input
