The objectives behind the constitution of the Parliamentary forums are:
- To provide a platform to the members to have interactions with the ministers concerned, experts and key officials from the nodal ministries with a view to have a focused and meaningful discussion on critical issues with a result-oriented approach for speeding up the implementation process;
- To sensitise members about the key areas of concern and also about the ground level situation and equip them with the latest information, knowledge, technical know-how and valuable inputs from experts both from the country and abroad for enabling them to raise these issues effectively on the Floor of the House and in the meetings of the Departmentally-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs); and
- To prepare a data-base through collection of data on critical issues from ministries concerned, reliable NGOs, newspapers, United Nations, Internet, etc. and circulation thereof to the members so that they can meaningfully participate in the discussions of the forums and seek clarifications from experts or officials from the Ministry present in the meetings.
Composition of the forums
The Speaker of Lok Sabha is the President of all the Forums except the Parliamentary Forum on Population and Public Health wherein the Chairman of Rajya Sabha is the President and the Speaker is the Co-President. The Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, the concerned Ministers and the Chairmen of Departmentally-Related Standing Committees are the ex- officio Vice-Presidents of the respective Forums. Each Forum consists of not more than 31 members (excluding the President and ex-officio Vice- Presidents) out of whom not more than 21 are from the Lok Sabha and not more than 10 are from the Rajya Sabha.