It is certainly a moment to celebrate as it took nearly three decades to materialise. Yes, this is about the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women’s Reservation Bill) – a Bill that provides for one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures. The Bill has finally been passed in both Houses of Parliament. Incidentally, it was passed in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the special session called by the government in the new Parliament Building. Many have termed this Bill to be a game changer and a new beginning for women’s rights.   

However, is it really a new beginning? India has often been criticised for lack of women’s participation in the legislature. True, till now we have only 15 percent women in Lok Sabha and 14 per cent in Rajya Sabha. If we look at the emerging economies, India has one of the least diverse legislatures. For instance, South Africa has 45 per cent women in the lower house, China has 27 percent and Brazil has 18 percent. Among the developed nations, the US and the UK have around one-third representation.   

We have certainly improved over the last decade; however, we are nowhere close to the global average of 26 percent. In view of this, the newly introduced Bill certainly increases the hope that soon women will have at least one-third representation in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. 

While speaking on the issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “For many years, there have been extensive discussions and debates on women’s reservations. In 1996, a Bill related to this was introduced for the first time. During Atal Ji’s tenure, the Women’s Reservation Bill was presented several times, but it couldn’t gather enough support for passage, which is why that dream remained unfulfilled.”   

Actually, the issue of women’s reservation in politics can be traced back to the Freedom movement. A letter to the British Prime Minister written by the representatives of three women bodies in the year 1931 said: “To seek any form of preferential treatment would be to violate the integrity to the universal demand of Indian women for absolute equality of political status.” It was certainly an utopian thought at a time when a large majority of people were in favour of confining women to the four walls of their house. Yet, it echoed the sentiment for a gender-equal world.   

The issue also came up for discussion in the Constituent Assembly debates but it was rejected outright on the assumption that a democratic world will provide representation to all groups of people that form India, including women. But it was not to be. 

It became evident that women will not find space in adequate numbers unless they get it as a right through the legislative route. Consequently, many women-related policies raised the issue of political representation of women and their reservation in the local bodies, to begin with. 

The recommendations made in the National Perspective Plan for Women in 1988 paved way to the historic 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, mandating the state governments to reserve one-third seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) including chairpersons at all levels as well as in the urban bodies. Within this, one-third reservation was made for SC/ST women. 

Over the years, women have proven to be efficient administrators and decision-makers at the grassroots. Some of the state governments went to the extent of reserving 50 percent seats for women in local self-government.

Logically, the next step would have been to provide similar opportunities to women in State legislatures and Parliament as well. However, the matter lingered on for decades. It is ironic that even after 75 years of our independence, we still need a law to reserve seats for women. Ideally, the environment should have been made conducive for organic representation of women. However, given the patriarchal nature of our society, very few women have been given such opportunities. It is generally believed that women are less likely to win an election. Often, they are fielded in tougher constituencies to prove this age-old myth.  

In view of this, the idea of reservation for women in State Assemblies and Parliament has faced a lot of opposition repeatedly. The Bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Deve Gowda government in September 1996, then by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998, then in 1999, 2002 and 2003. The Bill failed to receive majority votes. In 2008, the Bill was tabled in Rajya Sabha and got passed. However, it was never taken up for discussion in Lok Sabha. The BJP did mention this in its election manifesto in 2014 as well as in 2019.   In short, this is the first time the Bill got approved in both Houses of Parliament.

Ideally, this should have been termed as one of the biggest victories in favour of women rights. However, there is a major lapse. Despite the fact that the Bill won’t take much time to become an Act, it cannot be implemented immediately or even in a few months’ time.   

It is an uphill task to strike a balance within this quota and ensure representation of women from various marginalised groups in view of the complexities of caste, creed etc. This can only be reached by initiating dialogues with various stakeholders and arriving at a conclusion to promote inclusion and justice. 

However, a provision in the Bill itself is impeding the progress towards women’s participation in legislative decision-making. The Bill provides that reservation will come into effect once delimitation exercise (the process of redrawing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly constituencies based on recent census) is conducted after the relevant figures from the census have been published. 

The Bill also says that rotation of seats reserved for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies shall take place after each subsequent delimitation exercise. In fact, Home Minister Amit Shah has claimed that the Bill can only be implemented in the year 2029.   
In fact, it might take even more time as there is no clarity as to when the next census will be conducted. It was due to be conducted in the year 2021 but was suspended due to the spread of Covid-19 virus. 

Now the question is if the Modi Government has shown the political will to get this Bill passed, why should it be implemented after such a cumbersome and lengthy procedure? Why should the benefits of this Bill be delayed for so long? And if it was practically impossible to implement it before the next Lok Sabha elections, why was it introduced by convening a special session of Parliament? Had it been done so, more women would have become part of lawmakers, voicing their concerns on matters pertinent to their lives.   

While we have certainly created history, it is unfortunate that its implementation will not see the light of day in the near future. In other words, women will have to wait for many more years to make their increased presence felt in Parliament. 

(The writer, a company secretary, can be reached at jassi.rai@gmail.com)