Dil Maya Rai and Sonam Pelzom (right), members of the Parliament from Bhutan. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula
Doha: The world has made significant progress in the field of women empowerment in the past, but there is still a lot of distance remains to be covered. Governments can play a crucial role in strengthening the role of women in politics, say two women parliamentarians from Bhutan, who were in Doha to participate in IPU Assembly and Related meetings.
“Already we have reached to this level of women representation and this is commendable. It shows that there have been efforts from all stakeholders, but still we have room to accommodate more,” Dil Maya Rai, Member of Parliament from Bhutan, told The Peninsula. “Compared to some countries the representation of women in politics is very less in many countries. The governments should give more incentives to women candidates to women candidates,” she added.
Capacity building is another important enabler in women empowerment and countries can learn from each other in this field, said another parliamentarian.
“We should make women more aware about their rights. We should tell them benefits of coming forward. Sometime just awareness and education do not work. We have to create conducive environment for women to participate,” said Sonam Pelzom, Member of Parliament from Bhutan.
“For women they have more physical barriers. Mentally we can do equally like men but physically as you start campaigning and do you start going to remote areas, that is the time we need more support,” she added. She said that democracy in Bhutan is young with the first multiparty election held as recent as 2008. To support the democratic transition, Bhutan has introduced a democratic political culture for youth of Bhutan through democracy clubs in school.
“This is to engage and teach the students about their roles and responsibilities in a democratic society. Bhutan’s election commission also introduced ‘The Bhutan Children’s parliament’ with the aim of helping young Bhutanese understand the inner working of a democracy,” said Sonam. “The Bhutan children’s parliament meet twice yearly, bringing Bhutanese youth together to discuss issues of common concern and submit their proceedings to the Parliament of Bhutan,” she added.
The 140th IPU Assembly and Related Meetings concluded in Doha last week, witnessing huge participation of parliamentarians.
A total of 80 parliament speakers took part in this year’s meeting, and 40 deputy speakers. There were also 2,200 members of parliaments that represented another 46,000 around the world that came to Qatar looking for a better future for peace, stability, and the rule of law. The parliamentarians said that IPU meetings are great platform for deepening democratic systems across the world and praised Qatar for hosting a successful IPU meetings.
“The arrangements for these meetings were perfect. It was my first visit to any country in the middle east and I am amazed by the development here. People in Qatar are kind and helpful,” said Dil Maya Rai.
Sonam said Bhutan’s measure of development is Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than the Gross Domestic Product where national happiness is prioritised over economic growth. Since 2010, the Bhutanese education system has put emphasis on value education through our own unique approach known as educating for Gross National Happiness. The Gross National Happiness values and principles are infused in school curriculum at all levels.
