LEH: The All Religious Women Association of Ladakh has demanded the early passage of Ladakh Buddhist Succession Amended Act so as to enable Buddhist women to have Right to Succession and in this regard they handed over a representation to LG Ladakh wherein several other demands related to women were also highlighted.
Addressing a press conference, the association members highlighted various issues directly impacting women of Ladakh and sought their redressal. They informed that their delegation handed over a representation to LG Ladakh Brig BD Mishra (retd) and sought his intervention.
“All the major demands were listed in the representation and the most prominent demand is passage of Ladakh Buddhist Succession Amended Act so that Buddhist women could get Right to Succession. The draft was submitted to the Law Secretary in the year 2020 but till date no efforts have been made to pass the same,” they said.
They regretted that the Buddhist women have no right to succession which is a huge discrimination and a setback to gender equality. As such it is requested to pass the Ladakh Buddhist succession Amended Act.
The other demands raised through representation included setting up of a woman’s hostel, home where domestic violence victims can take shelter; setting up of an adoption cum child cradle centre for the babies born out of wedlock who are mostly disowned due to social pressures and stigma; setting up of drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre for the youth; setting up of mental asylum especially for women; domestic violence cases to be solved on priority; exemption of property certificate requirements in making various documents like contractor card for women entrepreneurs; establishment of permanent bench of High Court at Leh; establishment of Family court at Leh; and constitution of Committee for sexual assault at workplace.
The women association also demanded an increase in the number of members of the National Commission for Women (NCW) with at least one Schedule Tribe member from UT Ladakh and 33% reservation for women in the LAHDC to ensure more women taking part in the decisions of developmental activities and policy making.
They informed that the LG assured to redress the issues raised by them but expressed inability from his end on some issues as the matter pertains to the Ministry of Home Affairs. He, however, assured to take the issues with MHA particularly that of the Ladakh Buddhist Succession Amended Act.
