She said while in bare statistics Rajasthan ranked fourth in crimes against women, Madhya Pradesh topping the list, her own feedback and experience was that Rajasthan was third after Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in that order. On the issue of women's reservation Bill, Giri decried the approach of political parties which resulted in the scuttling of the legislation. She said the BJP could have stillintroduced the Bill after the attempt by a minority group to thwart it.

She said regardless of the fate of the women's reservation Bill, activists of the national women's movement have decided to try and get their due through a "national coalition of women" which would put up candidates in elections to state assemblies and Parliament. The idea was formulated by experts and activists constituting NCW's core committee. She said the national women's movement has taken up the scheme and started work of organising women at the grassroots level, from the village. The movement would formulate women's issues to be taken up and also arrange funds for the candidates. A contribution of one rupee would be taken from every activist every month and deposited in the bank.

Giri said it would take some time to complete the preparations. She was not hopeful of this being done by the time of state Assembly elections due here by November.

Lashing out at Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav for getting the Billscuttled on the basis of a flimsy argument for reservations for backward and Muslim women within the women's quota, she said there was no such reservation even for men.

Speaking about initiatives to mobilise women, Giri said a beginning has been made towards setting up a federation of panchayat bodies all over the country which would provide a linkage between women belonging to different parts of India. A newsletter brought out periodically would keep women in all panchayats informed about the developments all over. She said the process has been started with Gujarat.

Giri took the opportunity to refute a statement attributed to her by a local daily and used by the ruling BJP to defend itself on the issue of crimes against women. She was reported as having said in Mumbai that the J C Bose Hostel gangrape case was aimed at maligning a "particular political party." Mohini Giri stressed that she had said that rape was a problem concerning the society and should not be seen in terms of politics or politicalparties.