The Women’s reservation Bill is one of the longest pending legislation in the Indian Parliament, since its inception. First introduced in 1996, the bill has remained enmeshed in controversy and unresolved for a period of over 13 years. On 9th March 2010, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, passed the bill on the reservation of 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha, for India’s women representatives.
Currently, a population of almost 500 million Indian women is represented by less than 60 elected representatives, out of the 545 Lok Sabha seats. Despite severe opposition and threats from several UPA allies, news of dissatisfaction amongst the members of the BJP party who originally pledged support to the bill, and the appearance of a lack of strategy on the part of the ruling UPA, the bill was passed on March 9th by the Rajya Sabha..
The main arguments from the opponents of the bill are the following:
(1)The bill would benefit only women from the privileged strata of the society. Hence this reservation should contain 33% reservation within the women’s category, for SC and ST women.
(2)The bill would bring forth more relatives (wives and daughters) of current politicians into public space and hence destroy democracy.
(3)The concept of quota is morally wrong and stigmatizes those from the reserved category. Women in modern India do not need reservation.
(4)Women can only represent issues pertaining to gender development.
(5)Reservation should be at the level of distributing party tickets.
Women represent a single fraternity. From the perspective of gender disparity, it has been well documented that these issues affect women irrespective of caste and economic status. Dowry harassments and domestic violence are prevalent across caste and economic boundaries. Female infanticide and feticide in India, that drew international concerns from UNICEF and WHO, is on the rise in metros, as much as in rural India. .
A second concern raised in the arguments against the bill is whether women belonging to powerful political families would be elected to positions of power and decision making, by their ambitious parents. Those opposing the bill argue that the reservation policy will bring the wives and daughters of politicians to these positions of power.
While the issue of political families in India holding power is true, this is prevalent across all political parties in India today. Many of the new faces amongst the younger politicians are sons and daughters of political families. This is also true of those who have raised this argument.
There is one fundamental question that has been asked time and again - Do women in India need reserved seats in the Parliament? Reservations at the Panchayati Raj or the village governance level are generally perceived as successful methods to draw out women, particularly the rural population, into a political space.
62 years post independence, women representation is still hovering at around 11 percent, with only 59 of the current 252 seats held by the majority party in the current Lok Sabha, significantly lower than the average of 17 percent all over the world. This is despite the fact that women candidates have higher success rates in Indian elections..
The civil society and the media will have mounted the pressure on the government for its accountability and the delivery of its promise. Until then, we the women of India will wait to celebrate this as a legislative victory.
Currently, a population of almost 500 million Indian women is represented by less than 60 elected representatives, out of the 545 Lok Sabha seats. Despite severe opposition and threats from several UPA allies, news of dissatisfaction amongst the members of the BJP party who originally pledged support to the bill, and the appearance of a lack of strategy on the part of the ruling UPA, the bill was passed on March 9th by the Rajya Sabha..
The main arguments from the opponents of the bill are the following:
(1)The bill would benefit only women from the privileged strata of the society. Hence this reservation should contain 33% reservation within the women’s category, for SC and ST women.
(2)The bill would bring forth more relatives (wives and daughters) of current politicians into public space and hence destroy democracy.
(3)The concept of quota is morally wrong and stigmatizes those from the reserved category. Women in modern India do not need reservation.
(4)Women can only represent issues pertaining to gender development.
(5)Reservation should be at the level of distributing party tickets.
Women represent a single fraternity. From the perspective of gender disparity, it has been well documented that these issues affect women irrespective of caste and economic status. Dowry harassments and domestic violence are prevalent across caste and economic boundaries. Female infanticide and feticide in India, that drew international concerns from UNICEF and WHO, is on the rise in metros, as much as in rural India. .
A second concern raised in the arguments against the bill is whether women belonging to powerful political families would be elected to positions of power and decision making, by their ambitious parents. Those opposing the bill argue that the reservation policy will bring the wives and daughters of politicians to these positions of power.
While the issue of political families in India holding power is true, this is prevalent across all political parties in India today. Many of the new faces amongst the younger politicians are sons and daughters of political families. This is also true of those who have raised this argument.
There is one fundamental question that has been asked time and again - Do women in India need reserved seats in the Parliament? Reservations at the Panchayati Raj or the village governance level are generally perceived as successful methods to draw out women, particularly the rural population, into a political space.
62 years post independence, women representation is still hovering at around 11 percent, with only 59 of the current 252 seats held by the majority party in the current Lok Sabha, significantly lower than the average of 17 percent all over the world. This is despite the fact that women candidates have higher success rates in Indian elections..
The civil society and the media will have mounted the pressure on the government for its accountability and the delivery of its promise. Until then, we the women of India will wait to celebrate this as a legislative victory.