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Women Reservation Bill-A Brief Analysis

The women reservation bill 2010 will provide 33% reservation in parliament and state assemblies for women . The women reservation demand has a long history and has to go a long way before becoming a law.

MARCH 8 is celebrated world wide as the International women’s movement completed its 150 years.Therefore, the day had a symbolic meaning for this bill. The idea of women reservation in electoral bodies came in late 80’s. Then, the Congress government led by late Rajiv Gandhi , presented a national perspective plan for women in which 30% quota of seats for women at all levels of electoral bodies was introduced .

That time the women organisations insisted on reservation only towards the panchayt level to enhance the grass root level participation of women. Through the 73rd & 74th constitutional amendment, the 33% reservation was implemented legally for three tier panchayat system .Till date, three times the bill had been tabled in parliament , 1997, 1999 and in 2008, but always failed to become law due to lack of consensus between political parties . Hence, the women reservation demand has a long history.

In the early times the bill was opposed because of gender biases and the reservation of seats was considered as against of principle of equality of democratic system . Later on, the demand of quota under quota for SC , ST , OBC and minority women also added with it . The present form of the women reservation bill is being criticized on various grounds . though it has got clearance from Rajya Sabha , but still has to go a long way before becoming a law , e.g. a strong opposition in Lok Sabha , the approval of at least half of the state assemblies, implication by election commission etc.

After the enactment of the bill , 181 seats of parliament and 1370 seats of state assemblies will be reserved for women . The rotation system of bill would be implemented for next three general election and in every election of states. The seats will be rotated at the time of every general election , that means 2/3 incumbents will loose their constituencies The logic behind rotation is to bring each constituency at least once under the female representation . Nevertheless, this provision will encourage unaccountability and irresponsibility of public representatives towards their voters .

As each MP/MLA would know that he/she might loose his/her, seat at next rotation. More so, the candidates will be unable to make a long-term attachment with their respected constituency and voters . The political and administrative setup of region will not take the female candidates seriously and probably consider them as temporary birds . The biggest fear is that this reservation and rotation will keep the female candidates limited towards some specified seats .

The other important critical point is quota under quota demand , which is based on some strong facts. The upper class women have always dominated the female representation in parliament . Their percentage never goes down by half of that . The SC and ST women representative stands at 25 % and OBC representative stand at 20% .

The next issue is the so-called ‘bahu-beti brigade’. No political party can claim that it is prevented or immune by this disease. Besides, most political parties do not have strong women candidates , so most probably the bill will directly promote the ladies who already have some political family background , In short , a law , a constitutional amendment alone can not bring the required changes . If we want the bill to bring changes in real terms and make of women the cornerstone of our social, political and importantly economic arch, then we need to bring the change not only at legal or constitutional level but at mental and intellectual level too.