Inaugurating a Special Training Programme in Parliamentary Processes and Procedures for Parliamentary Officers from Arabic Speaking countries in Parliament Library Building here on Monday, he said “the Arab Spring had ushered in a fresh wave of democracy in the Arab countries which has necessitated the process of institution-building and manpower training so as to effectively run the representative bodies in those countries.”

He hoped that the training programme would help the participants to understand the intricacies of practices and procedures of the Indian Parliament.

Under an initiative taken by the Speaker of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) Meira Kumar, the Special Training Programme is being organized by the Bureau for Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST) of the Lok Sabha Secretariat from April 15 to 26. The Programme is being attended by 14 participants from 7 countries, namely Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.

Khurshid said : “India’s rich experience in strengthening the local bodies has resulted in transforming the lives of the people in the far corners of the country. It is equally important that there is a constitutional provision for reservation for women in these bodies which has led to a large number of women occupying leadership positions.”

Khurshid hoped that a consensus would emerge among political parties in India in providing for 33 % reservation to women in Parliament and State Legislatures as well. He stressed the fact that women in India have been empowered in different areas in an effective manner and hoped that India’s success in empowerment of women should be emulated elsewhere also.

Earlier the Secretary-General of Lok Sabha Shri T.K. Viswanathan welcomed the participants.

It may be recalled that the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has taken a keen interest in sharing India’s rich experience in parliamentary democracy with other countries. As a result, a large number of parliamentarians and parliamentary officials have been attending various training programmes being organized by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

During a meeting with her counterpart of the House of Representatives of Morocco on the sidelines of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Kampala, Uganda, in April last year, Meira Kumar had offered India’s support for training Members of Parliament and parliamentary officials from Morocco and other Arabic-speaking Parliaments in special programmes to be conducted in Arabic. As a follow up to this, the Lok Sabha Secretariat has developed a training module in Arabic with the help of Arabic experts.