Grassroot Reservation Key for Equal Opportunities in Governance: Lt Gen Kanitkar

During an interaction with IANS, Kanitkar spoke about the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha.

She mentioned the Bill's collapse as a "temporary thing".

"I don't think it's there to stay because the idea of this reservation for women is so wholesome and so important and in such a positive direction," she said.

She highlighted that anything new would have "resistance and is looked at with a lot of apprehension".

"You don't expect everyone to agree on things. So, I think it's a question of 'Der Hai Andher Nahi' (it is late but never too late)," she added.

According to Kanitkar, reservation will be a big thing for the women voters as then it won't be like "women are going to vote only for the men to come and rule them".

She said that it would give the women a feeling of importance and would "stimulate young girls to get into this field because we are starting at grassroot levels".

The former Army officer also drew a comparison between the political representation of women and their inclusion in the armed forces.

She mentioned that even in the armed forces, more than resistance, there were apprehensions and those were not purely because of gender or competence.

"They were also because of the logistic support that's required. When you put women in combat roles, you need to have certain infrastructure. This is not the case in politics, right? You don't need to sort of ensure that they're in high altitude positions, whether there are toilets for women. I mean, these are very basic issues," Kanitkar said.

"Once opportunities are equal, I don't think reservation is required," she noted.

Speaking about the challenges she faced while navigating through the male-dominated spaces, Kanitkar attributed her success to two things, "One is that competence was always appreciated. At the younger level, there were equal opportunities."

Moreover, she emphasised that there was "no selection bias".

"Whether it's the military courses or post-graduation, for all these the opportunities were equal. So once you have given equal opportunities, as you go along the way, you bring in a certain confidence to the thing and you don't expect reservations anymore," the former Army officer said.

Kanitkar also made an observation about the huge gap between the appointment of the three women generals in the Army.

She also appreciated the increase in female appointments in combat roles.

"Then see how exponentially it has grown after that. Today, the armed forces, I mean, the medical corps, our DG AFMS is a woman, the DG Navy is a woman, the DG Army was a woman," she said.

Therefore, "It is empowering them from the grassroots which created leaders in the future. It was not a reservation," she stressed.

However, the former Army officer said that in a civil organisation or governance, "reservation is important from the grassroot because equal opportunities are not provided."

- IANS