Women's Reservation Bill, 2010

Women's Reservation Bill or the The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, is a pending bill in India which proposes to provide 'thirty three per cent of all seats in the Lower house of Parliament of India the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies shall be reserved for women.The proposed legislation to reserve 33.3 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women was drafted first by the H D Deve Gowda-led United Front government. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996. Though it has been introduced in Parliament several times since then, the Bill could not be passed because of lack of political consensus.[1] The Upper House Rajya Sabha passed it on 9 Mar 2010 .

The seats to be reserved in rotation will be determined by draw of lots in such a way that a seat shall be reserved only once in three consecutive general elections.

Women's reservations

Women get 33% reservation in gram panchayat (meaning village assembly, which is a form of local village government) and municipal elections. There is a long-term plan to extend this reservation to parliament and legislative assemblies. In addition, women in India get reservation or preferential treatments in education and jobs. Certain men consider this preferential treatment of women in India as discrimination against them in admissions to schools, colleges, and universities. For instance, several law schools in India have a 30% reservation for females. Progressive political opinion in India is strongly in favour of providing preferential treatment to women in order to create a level playing field for all of its citizens.

The Women's reservation Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010 by a majority vote of 186 members in favour and 1 against .It will now go to the Lok Sabha, and if passed there, would be implemented.

Possible benefits

• More women participation in politics and society.
• Social norms in India strongly favour men, therefore, reservation for women is expected to create equal opportunity for men and women.
• Due to female foeticide and issues related to women's health, sex ratio in India is alarming at 1.06 males per female.. It is expected this will change the society to give equal status to women.
• Women are supposedly more resistant to corruption. therefore, this bill might prove to be a factor restraining the growth of corruption.

Highlights of the Bill

• The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.

• The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by Parliament.

• One third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies.

• Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.

• Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.

[2]

Support For The Bill

The Indian National Congress which heads the current UPA government had introduced the bill. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Friday said the passage of the women's reservation bill in parliament would be the realisation of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's vision to politically empower women.

Addressing a meeting of Congress office bearers and state party chiefs at New Delhi, she said : "Women reservation bill... when it comes to fruition, it would be the realisation of Rajiv Gandhi's vision to empower women politically." [3]

The BJP has promised full support for the bill, though a few members of the party have been opposing the bill.Upset with some of its party MPs for speaking their minds against the Women's Reservation Bill and fearing a virtual revolt, the Bharatiya Janata Party has cracked the whip and said every party MP will vote in favour of the Bill as and when it is taken up in the Lok Sabha.

At a meeting of MPs at senior leader L.K. Advani's residence here on Thursday, it was made clear that every MP must toe the party line and refrain from adversely commenting on the Bill. That, however, did not prevent them from voicing their dissent and even charging the leadership with being “unnecessarily” proactive on the issue. Some urged it not to issue a whip and others questioned the wisdom of the party agreeing to “rotation” of reserved seats, saying the MPs will not nurture their constituencies. [4]

Possible drawbacks

Passing the Women’ Reservation Bill may cause bias in the democratic process because of the following reasons:

• It may hurt the self respect of women who have come up on their own ability, it may result in lesser respect for women in the society. It may also bring down the quality of leaders.

• It is likely to begin/increase the hatred between genders as male may feel deprived of certain privileges, in turn create more social issues.

• Parties will be forced to field women whether or not the women identify with the overall party agenda and the rest of the issues concerning all citizens, as opposed to just women’s issues. There are no provisions to prevent discrimination against men because of fielding women who are inclined towards women’s issues alone, or, in other words, biased against men.

• Powerful male members of parties will be tempted to field female relatives to ‘reserve’ the seat for themselves during the following cycle.

• It is feared that reservation would only help women of the elitist groups to gain seats, therefore causing further discrimination and under-representation to the poor and backward classes (According to a National Election Study, 68 per cent of today's women MPs are crorepatis).

Opposition To The Bill

Various political parties have staunchly opposed it because they fear many of their male leaders would not get a chance to fight elections if 33.3 percent seats are reserved for women. The Bill has also been opposed by politicians from the socially and economically backward classes. They argue that reservation would only help women of the elitist groups to gain seats, therefore causing further discrimination and under-representation to the poor and backward classes.

From day one, Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party have been the main political forces opposed to the Bill. The SP and RJD are opposed to the bill in its present form and want a quota within quota for women from backward classes.

Lalu says the Bill 'would deny adequate representation to other sections of society.' He favours 10 to 15 percent reservation for women. 'My party is not opposed to women's reservation, but the case of Dalits, backward classes, Muslims and other religious minorities should not be overlooked,' is his argument.

"I want to see women like Kalawati and Bhagwati Devi to be included in the quota. There should be reservation within reservation," said Lalu.

Mulayam favours making it mandatory for political parties to give 10 percent of election tickets to women. [5]

External links

• Women's reservation bill - A social necessity, national obligation, By Rajindar Sachar