indoctrinate. to listen. close ninety connect to an unbiased agenda subscribe now on you tube. this is news asia coming up on the program what will it take for india to finally see more women in parliament as the country enters the fourth phase of its massive election we have a special report from west bengal where a leading political candidate is trying to break through the glass ceiling. the end of an era japan's emperor akihito prepares to step down from his royal duties and hand over his robe.

i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia it's good to have you with us indians have voted in the fourth phase of polling in the country's month long general elections voters will elect a new parliament and prime minister narendra modi from the ruling hindu b j t party is seeking a second term his main challenger is leader of the opposition congress party raul gandhi the election is the world's biggest with nine hundred million people eligible to vote they will lech five hundred forty three m.p.'s to the lower house of parliament called the lok sabha polling has been spread out across the country in seven phases today voters went to the polls across nine states this includes parts of the state of west bengal where one political party is fielding a significant number of female candidates at school. forty one percent that's the

highest number from any party this election correspondent sonja sally carr travels to west bengal to meet. of the trinamool congress. in. its early morning in whistling gold's not their district politics here is a festive appears it's dominated by the ruling t.m.c. or tournament congress party. and the start of the show here is the party's. she quit a prestigious job as president of j.p. morgan in london in two thousand and eight. return to india and plunged into politics fulfilling a long held dream. when i was a kid if you asked me what i wanted to become i never said. i wasn't i want to be. my throws been doing that as an elected local lawmaker for the last four years.

she's now i would seat in the national parliament there's little doubt about who's in charge here she's angry about. the former investment banker is a rest site in indian politics is still largely a boys' club she goes curious crowds mainly women in these parts but the forty two year old who's also a national spokesperson for her party dismisses any questions about agenda and politics. as a politician i don't think. i think very few women's issues if you're fighting such basic grassroots politics if you've got a bad road it's a bad road that a woman walks on that it's a bad road that up a man walks on so i don't think that i can make a road that only women will walk on so i think most issues here are issues that are generic for everybody you know poverty infrastructure drinking water. through attributes hopefully to can rise to hard work and passion it's part she believes is open to any woman. willing to take. her own party the t.m.c.

is heavily promoting women candidates the push has come from the very top wrestling role is currently the only state in india that's led by a woman chief minister mamata banerjee she's often described as a firebrand leader and is a vocal opponent of prime minister rainbow and in this election it's fielding women in the record forty one percent of the party if the deficit. it's the highest number in this election but that doesn't mask the fact that india has one of the world's lowest rates of female lawmakers in parliament at just eleven percent so i mean the experts the parties need to do much more to change that also all political parties have set up separate women's way that's necessary but the question is how many of them there are decision making provision in general committee executive committee is the other big issue is how to make the environment more suitable for

women who are comfortable for women to actually enjoy. this this arena on their own accord. back on the campaign trail. mix a quick stop to meet voters she's treated like a rock star. but she has little time she plans to cover hundreds of polling stations in the next days. that means many more like this one every handshake and a political. she faces a tough challenge from prime minister narendra modi's hindu nationalist be party but she's ready for it this election is unlike any election we that's an independent india it is it an election for the idea of india we are fighting to remove more the we are fighting just to save the very idea of india i'm going to win one hundred percent it's a question of how large my victory margin will be temperatures already soared to more than thirty five degrees but there's no way. who is going to get a d.

in time. so there are more and more female candidates hoping to change india's political landscape but what do young women think about their representation in parliament we hit the streets of delhi to find out i wouldn't like you work for a woman just because she's a woman i fear that if there are murder number of women in the parliament then. in the me members it would be dominating as such and the only issue is equal equal then i think any issue would be so i remember in the so site india of it women have be long oppressed i think it's really important that women all step up and come into avenues they use you see lord avenue should be created for women now they should step in because but if you are public administration we need to amend the v. men to present it in protected from us. from the privileged background and only those kind of women i represented just because of them do the good they have some

kind of power but a lot of what. joining us now is angelica the former general secretary of the national students' union of india she writes about politics and gender angelica it's interesting in that earlier report the candidate was pretty adamant she didn't want to be referred to as a female candidate now identity politics is tricky what do you think is going on there is she afraid she's going to lose votes from men. generally you know that is one of the reasons i believe because the fact that the woman has to distance herself from agenda is a testament of the fact that identity politics is very crucial because generally even when you look at the u.s. elections hillary clinton had the real distance herself more often and present herself as a strong and capable leader similarly in india we have this all just. ensures that women do not you know women candidates are often not seen as

a woman because of the studio scene as we can in capital but if they pretend and if they try to fit in as a male candidate when more often than not there's water to power the thing is even when when you go and ask a male candidate whether he is of seen as a male going to be when even it's not even a question of gender there but for a woman candidate gender becomes a primary factor. now there are some shining examples in indian history for example indira gandhi having been elected prime minister in the one nine hundred sixty s. you have the current defense and foreign ministers who are women but in parliament the percentage is still dismal why do you think that is give us a couple of the main reasons. indian society is very patriarchal and it has been sold currently we have just eleven point eight percent of women in our lives let's leave assemblies and parliament the

reason is because of political parties we don't still have a gender in our political system even there is no more of voluntary gender caught in the political parties as well and because of which politics parties do not have the ball because you will. become gagging to feel women as candidates so that's one of the reason reasons apart from that we have guns of sexism and misogyny that is inherent within the system which ensures that women in general use of. i see a lot of young women you know entering into the system with a lot of patients but they don't remain so for a long time because politics is also not a job that they have to sustain themselves and it becomes very difficult in terms of family pressure financial rasher and societal pressure so women tend to stay out of it more often than not. now i really want to follow up on what you said about the gender quota is that what's necessary do you think that's the main change

that's going to get us to gender parity. indeed in india we absolutely need to at this point in time because we have just eleven point eight percent in of argument and if we're back in one thousand nine hundred three when the constitution amendment was brought in. for a reservation in the local governments it brought to a new revolutionary change where women's participation change from three percent to four percent to forty two percent so that is what is required at the higher ranks of government as well right now angelica thank you we head to japan now where in error is ending this week emperor akihito abdicates tomorrow after three decades on the throne the eighty five year old will hand over official duties to his fifty nine year old son. now the royal plant family plays no part in governance or politics in the country their roles are ceremonial and symbolic when prince not a he took becomes emperor he will put on some very special robes representing the

prominence of a royal house that stretches back some fourteen hundred years. emperor akihito paying his respects to shouldn't shrine. it's one of his last settlement he says japan's head of state before the second world war japan's emperor was treated like a gold today he has a more don't ask rule as a symbolic figurehead but the tradition of the emperor is carried in the garments he wears during his coronation. well that's got in the us at least a little the motif of the chinese phoenix on the emperor's kimono symbolizes the peace that takes hold with the enthronement of a new sovereign of. the golden brown color who is only the emperor is allowed to wear it refers to the sun to do it. the japanese royal family are said to be descendants of a sudden god dess called. when the new emperor nero he too and his wife must

awada are introduced to the public the rubes the where will symbolize the physical weight of responsibility on their shoulders. and. all the layers of previous robes weighed more than twelve kilograms together and gills and. now if you choose coronation represents the culmination of tradition spawning some one hundred twenty five generations. you can find more on this and other stories on our website that's come forward slash asia and check us out on facebook as well we'll leave you with pictures from hong kong where tens of thousands of residents protested. against a proposed extradition law it would make it possible for people to be sent to mainland china for a trial that's a move many fear that the city's freedoms at risk will see you next time.

my first vice a morsel sawing machine. where i come from women or bones by this ocean for even something as simple as learning how to ride a bicycle isn't. since i was a little girl i wanted to buy say a lot of my home and it took me years to. finally gave up and went on buying and i save those and return. because sewing machine sewing i suppose was more apropos for girls than writing and by. now. moving back home.

and social norms and informed and old dead piece of rights my name is the amount of people and they wore them. is global market stability at stake iranian officials say u.s. sanctions against their oil industry are a danger to the world. japan is said to lose an emperor but could it also lose its position as the world's third largest economy. and what the human eye can see using the latest ultra high definition cameras to ensure roads are safe. i mean physical and let's do business if donald trump has his way arabian oil exports will cease

next month ramped up sanctions will hit hard international monetary fund expects a runs recession to deepen saying the economy could for tracked by six percent. here in teheran people are exchanging reales as fast as they can faith in the iranian currency has fallen dramatically it now takes a stack of them one hundred forty four thousand at the moment to purchase a single dollar and most people fear the u.s. sanctions will drive the rio down even further. with this of course the country's revenues are going to drop and maybe the real value will drop as well and the endo the pressure that they're putting on this is pressure on the people the frustration level. you know you some people have fixed limited wages like us. when prices rose we had to change a lot of things.