Maharashtra to provide 50% reservation for women in state local bodies
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COMMENTS 
Political parties in Maharashtra will have to nominate 130,734 women in local bodies during elections, now that the state cabinet has approved increasing the women’s quota from 33% to 50%
The Maharashtra cabinet has approved reservation of half the seats in local self-government bodies for women. Although a bill to reserve 33% of seats for women in Parliament and state assemblies has been stuck for many years, the state government foresees no problem in the reservation bill being passed in the session of the state legislature beginning on March 14, as its major coalition partner is backing it.
A 33% quota for women in local bodies already exists, and while some see the increase as merely an election gimmick -- local elections will soon be held in Maharashtra -- others argue that since women constitute considerably more than 33% of the population, their representation must increase. There are many grassroots party workers who will now get a chance to be elected.
The local bodies include the gram panchayat (GP), panchayat samiti (PS) and zilla parishad (ZP), municipal corporations and municipal councils across Maharashtra.
Parties will have to identify and give candidature to a record 130,734 women in local bodies during the elections. They will also have to nominate nearly 1,859 women candidates in elections to 169 municipal councils slated for September 2011. About 980 women candidates have to be nominated during elections to the 33 zilla parishads slated for February-March 2012.
The State Election Commission is implementing the Kranti Jyoti scheme to make women representatives competent to handle governance.
Even before the 73rd Amendment, which made 33% reservation for women mandatory in the country, women in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra had been contesting elections and participating in panchayats. The oldest known all-women panchayat that held office was in Nimbut village in Pune district of Maharashtra (1963-68).
Karnataka had 25% reservation for its two-tier panchayati raj system in 1987 that was replaced by the constitutionally mandated 33% in 1993.
Three states -- Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra -- conducted elections with 33% reservation for women immediately after the 73rd Amendment.
Bihar was the first state to offer 50% reservation for women in panchayats, in 2005, following which Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also announced 50% reservation, to be implemented in the next panchayat election in early-2010. Kerala recently announced 50% reservation for women in panchayats and other local bodies.
In most other states, women’s representation is around 36.87% of the 28.18 lakh elected panchayat representatives.
Source: The Hindu, March 9, 2011
Business Standard, March 9, 2011
http://www.pri.net.in/statewise_reservation.php, March 2011