What is the Women’s Reservation bill in India?: Celebrating Gender Equality

What is the Women’s Reservation bill in India?

The Women Reservation Bill 2023, also known as the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, is a significant legislative proposal in India aimed at promoting gender equality and women’s political empowerment.

History 0f What’s the Women’s Reservation bill in India

1. 33% Reservation for Women: The bill proposes that 33% of the seats in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s parliament) and State Legislative Assemblies should be reserved for women.
2. Amendments to the Constitution: To implement this reservation, the bill suggests amendments to the Indian Constitution. Specifically, it amends Article 239AA, which deals with special provisions for Delhi, and introduces three new articles: Articles 330A, 332A, and 334A.
3. New Reservation Articles:
   • Article 330A is related to women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha.
   • Article 332A pertains to women’s reservation in state legislative assemblies.
   • Article 334A includes a sunset provision, which means that the reservation policy will be gradually phased out after 15 years.
4. Horizontal Reservation: The bill includes provisions for horizontal reservation, which means that within the reserved seats, a portion is allocated to women from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). This ensures that even historically marginalized groups of women have representation.
5. Rotation of Seats: The bill allows for the rotation of seats reserved for female lawmakers among various constituencies within a state or union territory. This ensures a broader reach of women’s representation.
6. Special Majority Required: The Women Reservation Bill requires a special majority in the Indian Parliament for its passage. This means it needs the approval of two-thirds of the members in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha (the upper house). Additionally, it needs ratification by at least 50% of the states.
7. Implementation Timeline: The bill specifies that the reservation of seats for women will come into effect after a delimitation exercise is conducted based on the first census data published after the bill’s passage. The earliest expected implementation is in 2029.
8. Constitutional Amendments: To carry out the delimitation exercise necessary for the implementation of reservations, changes to Article 82 (dealing with the readjustment of constituencies) and Article 170(3) (related to the composition of state Legislative Assemblies) of the Indian Constitution would be required.
9. Women’s Reservation in Panchayats: The bill also recognizes the provisions of Article 243D of the Constitution, which mandates the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and women in Panchayats (local self-government bodies). It ensures that at least one-third of the seats reserved for SCs and STs should be held by women.

The Women’s Reservation Bill in India has a long history marked by multiple attempts to pass it into law, debates, and challenges.

Here’s a summary of its history and the significance and concerns associated with it:

1996: The Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced to the Lok Sabha as the 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill in September 1996. However, it faced rejection in the Lok Sabha and was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by Geeta Mukherjee. The committee’s report was presented in December 1996, but due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, the bill lapsed.

1998: The bill was reintroduced in the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 but did not receive sufficient support and lapsed.

1999, 2002, and 2003: The bill was reintroduced three more times during these years but failed to secure a majority of votes despite support from major political parties.

2008: In 2008, the bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha and approved with 186 votes to one. However, it was never discussed in the Lok Sabha and became inoperative upon the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.

The failure to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill can be attributed to several factors, including societal attitudes that do not readily accept women as leaders and the belief that women may hesitate to compete with male candidates.

Significance of Women’s Reservation:

1. Skewed Gender Representation: The bill is seen as necessary to rectify the highly skewed gender representation in Indian legislatures. Women hold a low percentage of seats in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and their progress in this regard has been slow since independence.
2. Socio-economic Impact: Women’s reservation is seen as a means to address various socio-economic issues, including high rates of crimes against women, low participation of women in the workforce, poor nutrition levels, and a skewed sex ratio. Having more women in decision-making roles is believed to contribute to more effective discussions on women’s issues.
3. Global Gender Gap: India ranks low on the Global Gender Gap Index, and increasing women’s representation is considered essential to closing the gender gap in political empowerment.

Concerns in the Women Reservation Bill:

1. Homogeneity of Women: Some argue that women do not constitute a homogeneous group like a caste, making it challenging to implement reservations for them.
2. Equality Guarantee: Critics argue that reserving seats for women might go against the Constitution’s guarantee of equality. They contend that such reservations could imply that women are not being judged on their merits.
3. Perpetuating Disparities: There are concerns that this approach may perpetuate existing gender disparities by suggesting that women need special quotas to succeed.
4. Electoral Reforms: Critics argue that the focus on women’s reservation may divert attention from more significant electoral reform issues, such as addressing criminalization in politics and improving inner-party democracy.
5. Voter Choice: Some experts suggest that reserving parliamentary seats for women restricts voter choice. Alternatives like party reservations and rotating reserved constituencies in each election have been proposed.
6. Rajya Sabha and Committees: The Women’s Reservation Bill does not address the participation of women in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house) and important parliamentary committees, which is another concern.

Women’s representation in political leadership varies significantly from one country to another, and different nations have adopted various measures to address gender disparities in their legislatures.

Here are some key insights into women’s representation in several countries:

1. Rwanda: Rwanda is often cited as a global leader in women’s political representation. In 2019, it had the highest representation of women in its legislature, with 61.3% of seats held by women.
2. Cuba: Cuba followed closely behind Rwanda, with 53.2% of seats in its legislature occupied by women in 2019.
3. Nepal: Nepal, in South Asia, held the 36th position in terms of women’s representation, with 32.7% of parliamentary seats held by women.
4. India: India, in contrast, ranked 149th in the 2019 report, with only 14.4% of parliamentary seats held by women.

Other countries have implemented various strategies to increase women’s political representation:

• Party Line Reservation: Some countries, including France, South Korea, and Nepal, have implemented quotas that reserve as much as 50% of candidate lists for women within political parties.
• Party Quota Laws: Countries like Argentina, Mexico, and Costa Rica have enacted laws requiring political parties to have a certain percentage of female representation on their candidate lists, resulting in over 36% female representation in their national legislatures.
• Voluntary Quotas: Some countries, such as South Africa, Sweden, and Germany, have achieved substantial levels of female representation through voluntary (non-legislated) quotas adopted by political parties.

Here is a comparison of women’s representation in selected countries:

• Sweden: 46%
• Norway: 46%
• South Africa: 45%
• Australia: 38%
• France: 38%
• Germany: 35%
• UK House of Commons: 35%
• Canada: 31%
• UK House of Representatives: 29%
• US Senate: 25%
• Bangladesh: 21%
• Brazil: 18%
• Japan: 10%

Conclusion

The Women’s Reservation Bill in India aims to empower women and address the gender disparities in political representation. It is considered a crucial step toward achieving gender equality in Indian politics. Additionally, India has implemented women’s reservation in Panchayats (local self-government bodies), where one-third of the seats in direct Panchayat elections are reserved for women, as per the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992.

The bill and such reservation measures are seen as necessary to rectify the systematic exclusion of women from political participation, promote their democratic and constitutional rights, and work towards eliminating deep-seated gender biases in Indian society. While these measures alone may not completely eradicate gender inequality, they serve as vital steps to initiate change and ensure greater gender equality in political leadership and decision-making.

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1. What is the Women’s Reservation Bill in India?

• The Women’s Reservation Bill is a proposed legislation in India aimed at reserving 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) and State Legislative Assemblies for women.