New Delhi: Congress leader and newly elected Jat Maha Sabha president Capt Amarinder Singh Friday demanded that the Centre should fulfil the community`s long pending demand for reserved category status.
"Our demand for reservation is because of the fact that Jat community is economically and socially weak. It has been our long pending demand that the community should be included in the list of reserved category. It will be enable our youth to get job opportunities in central public sector units and other government offices," Singh said in his address to a gathering of Jat leaders and community members.
Terming the reserved category demand as necessary, the former Punjab Chief Minister said the Jat community was lagging far behind for years.
Jat leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and other states were present during the Jat Conference.
Earlier, former Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhary asked the Jat leaders to stop female foeticide and educate their girl child.
"According to the Health Ministry reports, over two lakh cases of female foeticide have taken place in western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. There is huge gender inequality, due to which marriageable youth are unable to find their perfect match," she said.
Stressing that there was a need to bring a change in the thinking that the girl child is a burden, Chowdhary said "our culture and society revolves around the women -- like mother and sister. How will the society progress and if there is no women in your community? You are not sending your girl child to schools and then expect that some educated youth will marry her. It is not possible."
Apart from Chowdhary and Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were also present at the gathering.
PTI
