World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion plans to in­crease Sikh wom­en’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the po­lit­i­cal sphere of Canada through its KaursVote panel dis­cus­sions across the coun­try which has seen a siz­able num­ber of Sikh men in pub­lic life.

While the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Sikh men in the po­lit­i­cal sphere of Canada has in­creased over the decades and though we have had some re­mark­able women rep­re­sen­ta­tives, still there is huge scope to en­large the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Sikh women in Cana­dian pub­lic life.

As part of the Sikh Her­itage Month, the World Sikh Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Canada will soon be host­ing “KaursVote” pan­els in cities across Canada.

The KaursVote non-par­ti­san ini­tia­tive will ad­dress the un­der-rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Sikh women in the po­lit­i­cal process by fo­cus­ing on why Sikh wom­en’s voices are so im­por­tant.  The ini­tia­tive will help start di­a­logues for Sikh women across the coun­try on how they can bet­ter en­gage with the po­lit­i­cal process and en­sure that politi­cians are re­spon­sive and ac­count­able to their is­sues.

WSO be­lieves that, “The Sikh com­mu­nity has es­tab­lished it­self as a po­lit­i­cal force in Canada in the last num­ber of decades. How­ever, while the en­tire com­mu­nity has seen the elec­tion of a record num­ber of Sikh elected of­fi­cials, Sikh women have not typ­i­cally par­tic­i­pated as vig­or­ously in the elec­toral process.”

As the pop­u­la­tion of Sikh pro­fes­sion­als’ in­creases and Sikh women move out of their homes for pub­lic good, politi­cians and bu­reau­crats in Canada would have to move be­yond the reg­u­lar in­ter­ac­tion with Sikh men from the com­mu­nity. They will have to meet and in­ter­act with the needs of Sikh women. On their part, Sikh women will have to cre­ate fo­rums and plat­forms to air their views.

“The Sikh com­mu­nity has es­tab­lished it­self as a po­lit­i­cal force in Canada in the last num­ber of decades. How­ever, while the en­tire com­mu­nity has seen the elec­tion of a record num­ber of Sikh elected of­fi­cials, Sikh women have not typ­i­cally par­tic­i­pated as vig­or­ously in the elec­toral process.”

World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Canada

This ini­tia­tive will look into the pos­si­ble rea­sons for this lack of en­gage­ment of Sikh women and then plan and strate­gise to ad­dress them.

Le­gal coun­sel of WSO, Bal­preet Singh, has in­formed the me­dia that “WSO will be ini­tially host­ing panel dis­cus­sions in Bramp­ton and Sur­rey with pan­els to fol­low in Cal­gary and Ed­mon­ton where Pan­elists from a va­ri­ety of back­grounds will dis­cuss how Sikh women can ef­fec­tively en­gage in the de­mo­c­ra­tic process in Canada at the var­i­ous lev­els of gov­ern­ment.

He has also in­formed that The KaursVote pan­els cur­rently planned for Sikh Her­itage Month in April are:

Bramp­ton:  April 6, 2019 from 2pm-4pm at PAMA, 9 Welling­ton St. E. Bramp­ton. https://​www.eventbrite.ca/​e/​kaursvote-sikh-women-in-pol­i­tics-bramp­ton-tick­ets-59337449910

Sur­rey:  April 7, 2019 from 2pm-4pm at Straw­berry Hill Li­brary – Sur­rey Li­braries 7399 122 Street, Straw­berry Hill Li­brary Meet­ing Room, Sur­rey, BC. https://​www.eventbrite.ca/​e/​kaursvote-sikh-women-in-pol­i­tics-sur­rey-tick­ets-59382798549

Ot­tawa, 28 March 2019, WSN News Bu­reau Canada