Will Women's Reservation Bill make any difference.
14 years after it was first introduced, amidst much hubris and drama, the Women's Reservation Bill was finally passed by the Rajya Sabha recently. The bill has suffered a long and arduous journey after it was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government, way back in 1996.
Aiming to increase the participation of women in the legislatures, the bill reserves a total of 33%of the seats in the legislature for women, on a rotational basis. Once enacted, the bill will stay in force for a period of 15years. Thus, assuming that successive Lok Sabha's complete their designated 5 year terms, by the end of 15 yrs, each constituency of the nation would have had at least one woman legislator.
Let's consider some facts first. The nation has had a woman Prime Minister for almost 15 years. Our current President, along with a number of State Chief Ministers are women. Yet the numbers of women in the current Lok Sabha stand at its pathetically highest ever tally of 58. This number has risen from the Constituent Assembly's total of 9 women members. Considering the fact that women form 50% of the nation's population, this representation of a little over 10% is clearly inadequate. This fact not only undermines a vast section of our society, it also makes our democratic country look a little, well, undemocratic.
The belief of the Constituent Assembly's esteemed members that women do not need affirmative action to rise for their rights clearly seems to have been belied. For a nation known for affirmative action for the oppressed, (reservations and quotas) we have clearly left behind the most numerous and the most oppressed section of our society. This folly urgently needs to be corrected.
The Reservation Bill is a potent tool in the hands of the government to undo the centuries of exploitation that women have faced at our hands. Critics of the bill have come up with some fantastic theories to oppose its passing. They are currently opposed to the bill on the issue of a sub quota in the bill for women from backward classes and the minorities, Muslim women in particular.
Their main argument is that the 33% reservation will benefit only the upper caste and well to do women. Women from the backward classes and the minorities are so oppressed as it is, that the very idea of them standing for elections would sound absurd to the men folk of their family. This will result in the 'bahu's and beti's 'of the leading families of the country to gobble up the reserved seats.
While the argument holds some merit, one may only look at the dynasty politics prevalent in our country to realise that this seems to be the normal practice of our nation's politics. A good point raised by the legislature, nevertheless, the passing of the bill is currently more important. If after a few years of enactment it is seen that women from backward classes are still not being elected, the government of the day can always move to amend the bill and introduce the sub quota.
Another point raised by those opposed to the bill state the provision of rotation. As per the provision, for each election a new set of seats will be reserved for women. This time period (of one term), the disparate say, is too less for a woman to establish herself in the constituency. This argument, in my opinion, clearly displays the prejudice faced by the women of our nation. It shows that the opposed firmly believes that a woman, once elected on reservations, will not be able to win a seat again when she doesn't have reservations, and when she is standing against professional and 'more competent' men. The opposed, while acting on good faith has defeated his case himself by making such a statement.
The rotation clause, in my opinion is one of the more enlightened and necessary aspects of the bill. What this clause will do is, that within a span of 3 elections, it will create a class of politically enlightened women in every single district of the nation. What the combined efforts of our nation haven't achieved in over half a century (60 yrs!), the above mentioned clause will do so in 15.
Now that the major grievances have been addressed, let's move on to the impact the bill will have on the status of women. The Constitution aims at 'Justice – Social, Political and Economic', so we must endeavour to look at the same.
In my opinion, what we will be looking at in a few years time will be the domino effect of this legislation, with Political, Social and Economic effects following in that order. Let's elaborate this point a bit.
The first and direct impact will obviously be on the Political front. From being in the background all this time, women will suddenly find themselves at the forefront of our nation's political arena. The dour white dhoti's and Nehru caps will suddenly find the parliament more colourful and lively. It will be a welcome breather from the narcissistic and aged parliamentarian that we have today. Make no mistake, even without reservations the percentage of women in the legislature has slowly and steadily been increasing since independence. This legislation will only speedup the process. Once a feminine political class has been firmly established, the trend should continue even after the 15yr period is over.
My next argument is that political representation will lead to social equality. This may happen in a number of ways. Firstly, once sufficient numbers of women have entered the political arena, the average Indian woman too, will start taking an interest in the events that directly or indirectly affect her. To support my point, I will make a simple analogy. In the last T20 cricket world cup, the entire advertising sector was dismayed at the early exit of the Indian team from the championship.
This was because they realised the importance of 'having your own' representation out there. Once the Indian team exited the tournament, the Indian interest in the trophy considerably subsided. I believe a similar case will take place once women enter the legislature in sufficient numbers. Women will become more enlightened as to their rights and responsibilities. More role models will be available to them, giving them the confidence to raise their voices against the injustices done to them. Political enlightenment will lead to social equality.
Secondly, with sufficient number of women in the legislatures, we will finally be able to make laws that will be more sensitive and appealing to their viewpoint. (Especially the ones related to them). Laws on dowry, rape, divorce, cheating etc will have more impact once their inputs are taken into consideration as well. We were in a very unenviable position of making laws for a group without taking their thoughts into the picture.
Thirdly, the chief perpetrators of the oppression against women, men too (whether they like it or not) will need to get used to idea of having women leaders. I can only imagine the consternation going in the minds of these men when their own districts are represented by a woman. Denial will lead to grudging acceptance, and will finally (hopefully) lead to a permanent change in their outlook towards women.
Once social parity has been achieved, economic independence and equality will not be far behind. Independent minded women will not be easily denied the rights of a good education. With good education will come economic independence. This will then become a self sustaining cycle, with all three aspects supporting and amplifying each other. It will further lead to a decline of social evils like female infanticide and female foeticide.
It is indeed sad to see that even after 14 yrs of successive debates by the legislature we still haven't been able to reach a consensus on the issue. This fact itself underlines the necessity of the bill. The legislature, the supposed home of the most enlightened minds of the nation, where reason and compassion should rule above all has not been able to be generous enough to grant women what is rightfully theirs. I shudder to think of the status of our women in the remote villages and tribal areas of our nation. Thus, I conclude that the Women's Reservation Bill will indeed be a milestone towards achieving our goal of a true and enlightened democracy and must be enacted at the earliest possible opportunity.
By
-Rohit Jain
