women reservation

WOMEN’S RESERVATION BILL – will it really empower women ??

The 73^rd and the 74^th Constitutional Amendments have provided for 33% quotas for women’s representation in all local self-government institutions.  

Prior to these Constitutional Amendments the state of Karnataka had reserved25% women’s quota in Panchayati Raj Institutions and the state of Maharashtra has also passed 30% reservation for women in urban - local and rural self-government institutions and more recently Bihar has in its new Bihar Panchayati Raj Act 2006  stipulated a 50% reservation in its Panchayats for women.  Ratifying the 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional Amendments by the parliament in 1993 bolstered all National Political Parties to announcing 33% reservation for women in Parliament. This is known as the 81^st Constitutional Amendment or Women’s Reservation Bill which was tabled in 1996.It has been met with a great deal of resistance and has not been passed since then even though it has been tabled many times.It is to be mentioned here that on May 2004 General Elections out of the total 539 Legislators only 49 women legislators were elected

 Women’s Suffrage Movement: A brief History

Women traditionally the marginalized community in society has found it difficult to bring about positive change for themselves within the political processes.

Voting rights for Women
Country	Year
France	1944
New Zealand	1893
Finland	1906
UK	1928
USA	1920
India	1947
Switzerland	1973

Women through time have always been at the fringes of governance and political processes. It was only after the Suffrage Movement started that women were looked as equal citizens of society. In effect the Suffrage Movement began as a movement in the 1800’s across the world to guarantee voting rights to women which were denied to them before. Most countries after a great deal of struggle by its female populace, were given the voting rights but with severe restrictions such as women could only vote but not stand for elections or since women were traditionally homemakers they would only vote for issues relating to the home.

It was only in the last century that the movement picked up and more and more electoral rights and privileges were granted to them. India granted its female electoral community the right to vote as early as 1947 but many countries like Switzerland granted voting rights to women as late as the 1970’s.Sadly; the Middle East has not yet completely given voting rights to its women as yet.

To be able to vote is not only the ability to participate in political processes but it also recognizes women as equal citizens of society and of the Nation-State. The right to vote translates into the recognition of the fact that women are not only caretakers of home but do have their own issues and concerns which needs to be addressed.

Background on women legislators –International Comparison

The women’s Suffrage movement has come along way from just demanding Right to Vote. This movement in the last century has produced many female world leaders and Legislators who have taken countries to new levels of progress and prosperity. President Srimavo Bandarnayake was the first politically elected head of state of Sri Lanka in 1960 followed by Indira Gandhi OF India, Golda Mayer of Israel, and Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain  ,ANGELA Merkel of Germany to name a few influential women leader.

The former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) is known for pulling Great Britain from the throes of Economic Depression and making it the Super Power it is today. Known as the ‘Iron Lady” a name given to her by the soviets, she took tough decisions that have helped bring about the economic boom that England experienced under her. She also deftly handled the Falklands Crisis bring a victory for Great Britain. Prime Minister Thatcher was also prudent enough to change her stance on the Soviet Union during the Cold War heralding the end of communist regime in USSR Percentage of Women Legislators in Lower House Country Date of Election Seats Women Legislators % of women SWEDEN 2006 349 164 47% CANADA 2006 305 65 21.3% USA 2006 435 73 16.8% INDIA 2004 541 49 9.1%

The INTER PARLIAMENTARY UNION has mentioned that the number of women in Parliament is so less that many more years are required before equality of the sexes is achieved in Legislatures across the world. Most women legislators in developing and developed countries have faced and face many problems in first getting elected and if elected, then to carry out their office term without too much male influence. Most countries have inscribed in their constitution or Legislation some kind of the positive measures for women and there are about 50 countries where the political counties have introduced quotas or other measures in their statutes. Sweden has the Zipper System whereby every other candidate in the electoral process has to be a woman. Positive action has seen immediate results, some countries like Rwanda seen an increase in the number of women legislators who now stand to be 48.8 %.(Dahlerup 2006)Women in western countries are slightly better placed than their developing country counterparts as women legislators face fewer stigmas and are also easily accepted. Whereas women in developing countries have to be from the political elite class to be part of the legislation process. There are very few exceptions to this occurrence like Mayawati and Uma Bharti. Women in any developed country look at politics as a viable career option whereas women in India and developing countries join politics mostly at the behest of the male relatives to safeguard their political bastions.

Highlights of the Reservation Bill

1. As nearly as may be one-third of all seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies shall be reserved for women.

2. Reservation shall apply in case of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) as well.

3. 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.

Critique to the Women’s Reservation Bill

1. Rotational reservation Rotational reservation of one-third of the seats exclusively for women would lead to a grave uncertainty for sitting male MPs eroding their meticulously developed political base and leaving them no scope to pursue politics as a life long career.

 2. The Bill also ignores an important recommendation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 81 Amendment Bill about extending reservation to Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils that was incorporated in the Clause 21 of its Report

3.. The Bill turns women’s quota into a zero sum game where women would get seats only if male MPs were removed from one third of the constituencies. (Nanivadekar2005)

 4. Reservation for Minorities within Women’s Reservation Bill  Infact most political parties have cited flaws in the present bill. The Samajwadi Party (S.P.) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) want separate quotas for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Dalits and minorities within the seats that will be reserved for women in Parliament and the State Assemblies. The Janata Dal (United) is also in favour of quotas within the quota for women. This has led to forming a deadlock and for the past many years and there do not appear any signs of breakthrough.

 Alternatives to the Women Reservations Bill

Since the first introduction of this bill these has been a great deal of debate on what would be the best alternatives to the present bill. Senior Feminist Scholar Madhu Kishwar has in her paper advocated nominating 33% of women as opposed to reserving the constituencies for women also known as the M.S.Gill formula (Narayan and Kishwar 2000).Rami Chhabra’s proposal emphasize converting 50% constituencies into dual member constituencies (Chrabra 2000).

 A proposal for Dual Member Constituencies has been propounded by Dr.M.M.Joshi who convened a four party meeting in which the proposal for Dual Party Membership was put forth.

The highlights of the proposal are:

1. Current 543 Lok Sabha constituencies would be grouped into three lots of 181 each. In each election, one of these lots would be converted into dual-member constituencies, each electing two Members of Parliament - a male and a female.

2. This would increase the number of elected Lok Sabha members to 724 (362 + 181 + 181) from 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

 3. The dual-membership would rotate after each election to the next lot of 181 constituencies.

 4. The proposal would also apply to State Assemblies and to SC and ST constituencies.

Another alternative would be to wait till 2026, when the existing freeze will be lifted on the Lok Sabha and the population will stabilize itself. It would be feasible to then increase the size of the house and to fix an appropriate number of candidates. Secondly, it has been suggested that 33% of the constituencies can be converted into dual member constituencies in which one man and one woman can be elected (Rudaya ,Rajan and Etnakumar 2005).

 These are few proposals which can change the content of the Bill but still keep the spirit of the bill and also be true to the demands of women groups who want a more active say in governance.

The 73^rd and the 74^th amendments to the constitution give reservation to women in all Panchayati Raj Institutions. This has lead to unprecedented rise in the number of women in these institutions increasing it to 43% of the total seats. When the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed in parliament in whatever form it will herald a change in the way 50%of the population of society (women) is looked at.