WOMEN RESERVATION BILL

1. Context

2. Crucial Role of Women in Indian Independence

• Women played a crucial role in India's fight for independence, by organizing demonstrations, leading rallies, and raising awareness.
• There were numerous female representatives in the Constituent Assembly as well. Just a decade ago, three of India's largest states, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, were in the spotlight for being led by Women Chief Ministers.
• While Sushma Swaraj led the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sonia Gandhi served as both President of the Congress party and Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance.
• Also, India had its first woman president, Prathibha Patil around the same time.
• Despite the presence of influential women in Indian Politics, we have regressed since the 1980s, and the patriarchal backlash has resulted in the status of women in India being far from ideal.
• Hence it will not be wrong to infer that the issue of political representation of women is a greater case, as opposed to having token representation.

3. Women's reservation status in India

• The discourse on women's reservation in India originates from the Pre-independence era when several women's organizations demanded political representation for women.
• It can be traced back to 1955 when a government-appointed committee recommended that 10% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies should be reserved for women.
• However, it was not until the 1980s that the demand for women's reservations gained momentum.
• The National Perspective Plan for Women (1988) recommended that 30% of seats in all elected bodies should be reserved for women.
• This recommendation was reiterated in the National Policy for the Empowerment of Women, which was adopted in 2001.

4. Women's Reservation in Local Bodies

• In 1993, the Panchayat Raj Act was amended to reserve 33% of all seats in local government bodies for women, which was a significant step towards women's political empowerment.
• The success of this reservation led to demands for similar reservations in other elected bodies; in 1996, the Women's Reservation Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
• The Bill proposed to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative Assemblies for Women.
• However, facing strong opposition from some political parties it lapsed but gained more momentum again in the early 2000s. 
• On March 9, 2010, the Bill was approved in the Rajya Sabha. Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, and Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) posed for photographs outside Parliament, smiling and holding hands, indicating that this was a fight much bigger than individual political affiliations.

5. History of Women's Reservation Bill

• The Women's Reservation Bill was first introduced in 1996, however, it did not get approval in Lok Sabha.
• Women's Reservation Bill was then referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee chaired by Geeta Mukherjee, which presented its report in December 1996. However, the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and had to be reintroduced.
• It was then introduced in 1998, 1999, twice in 2003, and 2008 but it failed to get support and lapsed every time.
• The Bill, then reached the Lok Sabha, after passing in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, where it never saw the light of day. When the House was dissolved in 2014, it lapsed once again.

6. Issues with the Women's Reservation Bill

• Women Reservation Bill opponents claim that due to the reservation, women would not be seen as competitors based on merit, this would perpetuate their inferior status.
• Additionally, they argue that this strategy serves to deflect attention from the more important aspects of electoral reform, such as the criminalization of politics and internal party democracy.
• Parliamentary seat reservations limit voters' options to female candidates. Therefore, some experts have suggested alternate methods such as reservation in political parties and dual-member constituencies.

7. Current Status of Women in Parliament