Time to say ‘aye’ for women’s reservations

The first special session in the new parliament building witnessed the historic introduction of the much-awaited women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha. Passing the bill in both houses of parliament will pave the way for the reservation of one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. However, the actual reservation of seats for women is not going to happen before 2029, as the bill has been presented with the caveat of completing the delimitation exercise based on the first census to be taken up after its passage. Linking the bill to the delimitation exercise and census was baffling, as another bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha was passed in 2010 without any riders and could have been taken up for passage in the Lok Sabha with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance having a huge majority in the current Lower House. While the next Lok Sabha polls are going to be held in 2024, there is a freeze on population-based, nation-wide delimitation exercises until the first census is taken up after 2025. This implies that even if the bill is carried through in both Houses of Parliament, a reservation of 33% seats for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is ruled out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as a major constitutional amendment and urged both houses of parliament to pass the bill with full consensus. He explained that the purpose of the proposed legislation is to expand the participation of women in the Lok Sabha and assemblies, which he said will further strengthen the Indian democracy. Observing the growing contributions of women in every sector, the Prime Minister has rightly emphasised the need for the inclusion of more women in policy-making so that their contributions to the nation increase further. Opposition parties led by the Congress have accused the Modi government of “betraying” the hopes of women by linking the reservation bill to the census and delimitation. They saw it as a “poll gimmick” by the ruling BJP and are likely to press for withdrawing the caveats of the delimitation exercise and census operation from the bill. The claims and counter-claims by the ruling and opposition parties will turn the women’s reservation issue into a political potboiler ahead of assembly polls in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Nevertheless, the introduction of the bill presents a historic opportunity to pass the women’s reservation bill into law so that it does not get postponed for another indefinite period. The issue has been hanging fire for the past 27 years since its first introduction in 1996. Passing the bill in the Lok Sabha is going to be a mere formality, but the BJP securing the support of opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha will be crucial for getting it passed. As it is a bill introduced in the Lok Sabha, it will lapse after the dissolution of the current Lok Sabha if it is not passed in the Rajya Sabha before it. The opposition parties, more particularly the Congress as the major opposition party, must honour their commitment to passing the women’s reservation bill into law. The Congress should do introspection that it had failed to build the consensus other than getting it passed in the Rajya Sabha when it was in power for two consecutive terms. If the opposition parties back out of their commitment to the issue on the grounds of technicalities of giving effect to the bill provisions and the actual reservation of seats for women, it will only be seen as an attempt to scuttle the fresh effort made on the floor of the parliament towards giving women an important space for political empowerment to enable them to play a crucial role in law-making. The parties, ruling as well as opposition, will at the same time be required to take the initiative to create space for women within their own organisational fold to grow into able, efficient, and powerful leaders so that there is no dearth of suitable women candidates for seats to be reserved. Even though there is provision for reservation of 50% seats for women, there are scores of instances of husbands or other male relatives of elected women representatives attending panchayat meetings as proxies, which is nothing but a mockery of women’s empowerment in the Panchyati Raj system. Unfortunately, political parties have failed to take any initiative to empower the elected women representatives so that they can function independently and make meaningful contributions to strengthening democracy at the grassroots. Parties rising above political consideration and extending support for unanimous passage of the women’s reservation bill can send a strong message that will percolate down to change the scenario at the grassroots level. Treasury benches in both houses showing an accommodating spirit can help build consensus for passing the historic bill.