A 36-year-old doctor from Hyderabad, Swetha Shetty, has taken it upon herself to ensure that women across the country gather political strength to demand equal representation in Parliament, so they get a collective voice to raise issues and resolve them. Shetty launched the National Women's Party (NWP) last year. It plans to field candidates in 283 seats across the country in the Lok Sabha elections.

Aiming for equal importance
The party's first state unit came up in Karnataka and the second started in Mumbai on Monday. Shetty will travel to Chennai soon to open another unit. "The idea behind forming the party is to remove gender disparity in politics and thus create equal importance for females in the patriarchal society," she told the media at the Mumbai Press Club.