Rajya Sabha passes Women's Reservation Bill
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COMMENTS 
The Bill reserving one-third of seats for women in the Indian Parliament, stalled for 14 years, was passed on March 9 among rowdy scenes by those opposed to it
The Rajya Sabha or upper house of the Indian Parliament passed the Women’s Reservation Bill on March 9, 2010. The house voted 191 to 1 to amend the Constitution and reserve one-third of seats in Parliament for women.
The Bill has been pending for 14 years with one party or other raising objections on various grounds. With the three major parties -- the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left -- supporting it, it was expected to get through this time, though parties opposed to it enacted rowdy scenes in the house.
Two parties that support the government alliance at the Centre, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, have since withdrawn their support; a third, the Trinamul Congress, abstained from voting.
The Bill now has to be passed by the Lok Sabha and ratified by 50% of the states before it comes into effect.
Proponents of the Bill see it as an historic and important step in empowering women and encouraging them to participate in public life. Just 10% of the current Lok Sabha are women.
The Bill has been stalled several times in the past because of forceful demands by parties with a large caste base that there should be reservations for lower caste and minority women within the 33% quota, or else upper caste women would dominate the seats. Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose party has been at the forefront of the ‘reservations within reservations’ demand, has broken ranks and recently announced his support for the Bill saying, “it is an idea whose time has come”.
Objections have also been raised to the provision of rotation of constituencies. This jeopardises the possibility of sensible planning to contest and nurture a political constituency for both male and female candidates, it is claimed. Supporters however point out that at the end of the 15-year cycle of this provision, all constituencies would have been represented by a woman once.
Well-known women’s activist Madhu Kishwar fears that what she calls the ‘biwi-beti brigade’ -- daughters and wives of powerful politicians -- will be given seats, not women with merit trying to make it on their own. Nepotism is a common and accepted practice in Indian politics and elsewhere, but it applies as much to men as to women.
Alternatives have been suggested, such as converting 50% of constituencies into dual-member constituencies. This would mean increasing the number of MPs and is aimed primarily at ensuring that men do not have to give up one-third of their seats to accommodate women. Making it obligatory for all political parties to provide 33% organisational representation to women has also been suggested to increase the pool of eligible women candidates. This is the route countries like the UK, France, Norway, Sweden, etc, have taken.
Reservation for women in local government bodies, which has been in existence since 1993, throws up equal numbers of examples for and against the quota system. Studies have documented that women representatives are often mere puppets and that their menfolk still pull all the strings. They also show that in many instances, independent-minded women leaders have emerged and their emphasis on development issues, particularly development issues affecting women, have wrought some degree of change. Over time and with use, this can only grow.
Source: The Indian Express, March 9, 2010,
Hindustan Times, March 9, 2010