Congress plans mission to encourage women to venture into politics

The Congress plans to launch a “leadership development mission” to identify and encourage young women to enter politics. A beginning will be made in September, when the party will select 100 women aged 18-25 from Delhi’s colleges and arrange for their mentoring by former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and luminaries from different fields.

A panel of women leaders and high achievers in different fields is currently being put together by the party. This panel will first shortlist 100 young women and then handhold them in their political journey. The party’s students’ wing, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), will kick-start the process across Delhi’s colleges in September and ask the students to apply for the mission, after which 100 students will be shortlisted.

“We will help the women leaders from the beginning,” said Congress joint secretary in-charge of NSUI Ruchi Gupta. “The first hurdle is always persuading the family to allow their daughter to venture into politics. So we at NSUI will do that – go and speak to families – and then once that is done, the budding leaders will be trained by our panel, led by Sheila Dikshit ji.”


The students selected for the programme will be trained in public speaking – how to connect with an audience and put their point of view across – and sensitised about the gender bias in the political setup. A senior Congress functionary said, “Usually women leaders are confined to certain issues like rape or other crimes against women or inflation and increasing LPG prices. It is this gender bias we need to break. The budding leaders will be educated on how they need to stay informed and identify politically potent issues and then articulate their views.”

The most important aspect of the programme will be the promise of tapping into various networks.