Women’s reservation in Parliament, State assemblies should be implemented: VIT Chancellor

VIT founder and chancellor G. Viswanathan said that steps should be taken to implement the law that provides 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and State assemblies.

Speaking at the International Women’s Day 2026 celebrations, which was organised by VIT at its campus here, Mr. Viswanathan said that despite women constituting around 48 percent of the world’s population, they still do not enjoy equal status, especially in the political arena. “Of 193 countries, only 22 countries have women prime ministers and 19 women presidents. In India, women constitute 14 percent of Lok Sabha members and 10 percent in State assemblies,” he said.

The Chancellor said that inequality among women is not restricted to political representations but also in other areas like education and health care. For example, over 80 percent of men are literate as against 62 percent of women at the national level. In Kerala, female literacy stands at 95 percent whereas Bihar was able to achieve only around 50 percent female literacy, he said.

Mr. Viswanathan highlighted the need to extend the ongoing Tamil Nadu government’s Pudhumai Penn scheme, that provides ₹1,000 per month to girls in government schools for higher education, to private school students. It will help increase the labour force among women in the country. “On its part, VIT through its Universal Higher Education Trust has provided scholarships to over 11,000 students to pursue higher education, with 67 percent of them being girls. Such initiatives help prevent school dropouts and child marriages, especially among girls,” he said.

The Chancellor said that India should improve in gender equality as it is ranked 131st compared to its neighbour Bangladesh, that secures the 24th position in Gender Equality Index. Countries like Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates are in the top 20.

On the occasion, Prathima Venugopal, senior director (Technology Strategy), Walmart Global Tech India, Divya Amarnath, vice-president, Red Bus, VIT V-Ps Sankar Viswanathan and Sekar Viswanathan were present.