Abstract
It is a rare phenomenon when a bill lapses four times without seeing the dawn of the day. The Women’s Reservation Bill is a textbook example of this rare phenomenon. The Bill has already lapsed in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2008 and the lack of political will makes the future of this bill even gloomier. The intention behind this research is to do an all-round analysis of the previous legislation, its provisions, their drawbacks and plausible solutions to them. This study will also show the need for an increased representation of women in Parliament and what benefits will it bore. The United Nations has on multiple occasions reiterated the need of a greater representation of women in the law making process of a country. The Beijing Declaration which was adopted during the Fourth World Conference on Women is a well articulated example of the same. India, having a dismal percentage of women in Parliament, needs to adopt a legislation on the lines of the Beijing Declaration at the earliest. But at the same time the previous legislation was met with criticism from all walks of society. In this article, emphasis has been laid down on the shortcomings of the previous legislations and how the same can be removed. This research also briefly talks about the situation in various countries regarding Reservation of women and what India can learn from them. It is essential to ponder upon this topic as it should be the goal of every Government to take steps towards a gender equal society and giving women their rightful share in the Parliament is the first step towards the ultimate goal of gender equality.
- Introduction
1.1 Status of Women in policy making.
It is nearly impossible for a country to progress if half of its population is made to sit on the backseat of a car which is running on the road of economic, cultural and social development. It is catastrophic if nearly half of the population of a country is given no representation, role and responsibility to participate in the nation building process. In an era when women participation in policy making and governance should be maximum, their representation in reality is sub-par. Figures narrate that the total female parliamentarians in the world as of February 2019 is a dismal 24.3%. This speak much about today’s era of feminist jurisprudence and how real empowerment of women is being hampered by the settled patriarchal social norms. This percentage comes down to a mere 19.5% when we talk about Asian countries.[1] The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women[2], 1995 while framing and drafting the Beijing Declaration affirmed that democracy can only survive if women are given equal representation in the Governance of any country.[3]
Why go so far when we have statistics of our own country at hand. The seventeenth Lok Sabha has a gloomy 14.39% of female parliamentarians.If you think that this percentage is low, mind you that this is the highest percentage of women in Parliament ever after independence.[4] These statistics speak a lot about the ball game of gender equality in India. This is not just the case with the present Lok Sabha, but has marred politics since 1947. Even in the first general election out of the 66 women candidates only 19 were finally elected to the parliament. Jawaharlal Nehru was dismayed by this psyche and wrote to the Chief Ministers that the future of India depends more on women than on men.[5] Some argue that this dismal representation of women in the highest law making body of the country is the root cause why women empowering laws never get a nod. Even criminalization of serious crimes like stalking and voyeurism gave rise to a heated debate in Parliament.[6] Hence there is a need for female Members of Parliament to give the required insights from their perspective and help framing women empowering laws.
Even after astounding contributions from women like Smt. Sarojini Naidu, Smt. Kamla Nehru, Smt. Bhikaji Cama and Smt. Savitri Bai Phule among others in the freedom struggle, the Indian psyche is still hesitant in giving representation to women in the Parliament. Even in modern times, national leaders like Late Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Smt. Sonia Gandhi among many others have proved to the nation that gender is no qualification for proving the mettle of leadership.
- Historical Overview of the Women’s Reservation Bill in India.
Some trace back the history of the Women’s Reservation Bill to 1996 when a form of it was first introduced in the parliament but later lapsed. But the issue of reservation of women in law making bodies can be traced back to the pre-independence years. Even before the Government of India Act, 1935 was enacted, Indian women through the All India Women’s Conference in unequivocal terms urged the government to give no reservation or special status to women. Even after that, the act provided for reservation of women. So, in essence, women got reservations even though they did not ask for it.[7]
The Constituent Assembly debates is an evidence where female members discouraged the assembly to provide for any special privileges for women. Mrs. Renuka Ray, a member of the Assembly from the West Bengal region, argued for complete equality and absence of any special system of reserving seats for women in the Legislative bodies. She argued that women and men have been equal shareholders in and contributors to the freedom struggle of this great nation hence they should share an equal status.[8]
After the introduction of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments the next logical step in sequence was the introduction of reservations for women in the Legislative bodies of the country. In pursuance of this, in 1996 the United Front Government introduced the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Parliament. This bill provided that at least 33% of the seats in the Lower House and the Legislative Assemblies be reserved for women for an indefinite period. The bill was not passed due to various issues including lack of political will to do so. The bill later lapsed.[9] Attempts were also made in 1998 and 1999, but these attempts also failed due to the same reason. In furtherance of this, The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 was introduced in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) which aimed at reserving 33% seats for women in Lok Sabha and each State Legislative Bodies.[10]
III. The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008.
Mahatma Gandhi once prophetically said, “as long as the women of India do not take part in public life, there can be no salvation for the country.’’[11] The same was outlined in the object of this bill. The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on May 6th, 2008.[12]
In essence it talks about increasing the representation and participation of women in the law making bodies by ensuring the following –
- Increasing number of female representatives – The bill seeks to provide 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha as well as in the State Legislative Assemblies. The provisions will also apply to the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. This arrangement will last for fifteen years from the enactment of the bill.
- Quota within Quota – The reservation will also apply to reserved seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the women of the respective categories. Hence, if there are 9 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in a state, 3 of them will be reserved for women of the Scheduled Castes.
- Amendment of the Constitution of India – Amendment of articles 239AA, 331 and 333 and insertion of new articles 330A, 332A and 334A in the Constitution to provide for reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies.[13]
3.1 Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan Committee Report
The bill was then referred to the Standing Committee under the chairmanship of Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan which submitted its report to the Rajya Sabha on 17th December, 2009. The committee was of the unanimous opinion that representation has been denied to women in Indian politics since 60 years of independence.[14] The committee after considering views of different political parties, NGOs, and the Geeta Mukherjee Committee report came to the conclusion that there is no need for the dilution of the 33% reservation principle for women. The committee was also firmly in favour of the Quota within the Quota system of reservation and opined that it was a necessary move to provide for social equality within a patriarchal set up.[15]
The things that the committee disagreed with included the restriction of reservation to only to the lower house of the parliament. The Committee opined that women should also get their due share in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) as well. The committee also recommended that the Government must look into the issue of reserving the seats for women belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
In the end the committee concluded with the observation that 12 years have already passed since the Geeta Mukherjee committee report and further time should not be wasted and reservation should be given to women in law making bodies.[16]
- Analyzing the shortcomings of the previous women’s reservation legislation.
The previous women’s reservation bills were not free from every defect. Painting an all positive picture would be unjust and also biased. Here are few downsides of the previous bills –
4.1 The issue of Pradhan Pati in rural India can transform into the issue of Saansad Pati at national level.
The problem of Pati Pradhan is deep rooted in the rural set-up of India which is still in the shackles of patriarchy and the psyche that women can’t govern them efficiently still infects the rural populace. To understand what Pradhan Pati is, it is essential to understand the reservation of women in the village panchayats. Article 243 provides 1/3rd reservation for women in all the Panchayati Raj Institutions and 33% in the office of chairperson at each and every level of Panchayati Raj Institutions. [17]
In her book, Nirmala Buch explains the concept of Pradhan Pati in great detail. She says that initially when women were given reservations in the Panchayats they were unaware as to what are the functions of an elected representative. They took help from their husbands and in the guise of that help, their husbands became the unofficial authority. This phenomenon came to be known as ‘Pradhan Pati’.[18]
Even the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, addressed this problem on the National Panchayati Raj Day functions back in the year 2015. He said that the empowerment of women should be the priority of every individual because women should get the opportunity which is prescribed to them by law. They should not be overshadowed by the whims of their husbands. He further urged all village panchayats to bring about positive changes in their respective villages and within the panchayat system as well. [19]
The previous Women’s Reservation legislation did not offer any solution regarding this problem and if men continue to have influence over the women representatives, that defeats the entire purpose of giving reservation to women in the first place.
4.2 No concrete evidence that women will always opt for a pro-women law while in the Indian set up.
India follows a multi-party democratic set up of Governance. Whenever a bill is introduced in Parliament, each Member of Parliament votes according to the party line irrespective of his/her gender. The role of the party whip is essential to know in this regard. The party whip has a right to ask for an explanation if a particular member refuses to vote according to the whims and wishes of the party. The party whip has all the rights to take action against such defaulting members. [20]
In Rwanda, where after the 2003 election the female presence in the Parliament rose to 48.75%, there was no suitable difference noted in the policy output of the chamber. It might be an exaggeration to believe that a large number of women in Parliament will change things for the good overnight.[21]
In India, where a pro-women bill as important as the Women’s Reservation Bill has lapsed four times, there is a need to look at the Political will of our Parliament. With the whip system in place, no women will be able to vote against the party lines. Hence, even if women are given reservations, they won’t be able to vote in favour of a pro-women legislation if the same is against the party lines. It is important that the future legislations revisit this problem and also propose a feasible solution to the same.
4.3 Narrowing the pool of choices for the voters.
It is also essential to note that reserving constituencies for women will amount to a reduction of the choices for the voter. A voter has less options from which he/she can choose their representative. It is even possible that a deserving male candidate will lose out on the opportunity of becoming a representative just because of the fact that his constituency is a reserved one. This is the reason why the All India Women’s Conference opposed the reservation of women prior to the Government of India Act, 1935. Moreover, the principle of rotation of constituencies will give rise to uncertainty of re-election which will further give rise to the problem of corruption and malpractice.
- Conclusion – The way forward
It is essential for us to understand that the present legislation which was brought did not fulfill the objective of gender equality per se. Hence it is better to bring in a flawless law instead of a law, which is hastily made and full of flaws. We also talked about the flaws of the previous laws. For us, it is important to understand that till the time these flaws are not removed from the future generation of legislation. It will be impossible to create a gender equal society.
It is essential to note that just providing for reservations without giving the elected women a right to a different opinion than that of the settled party line defeats the entire purpose of giving increased representation to women.[22] This bill has on various occasions sparked debates on infringement of the principles of equality and democracy. But these critiques fail to put forth an alternative in front of the Government for increasing the representation of women in Parliament. [23]
Before reservation what is required is a sensitization of all the Members of the Legislative Assembly and Members of Parliament. Such a sensitization is necessary among the law makers so that passage of a pro-women law becomes easier. Moreover, there should initially exist a reservation for women in the candidature of a political party. This can solve issues like Pradhan Pati, rotation of seats and will give equal opportunity to men to compete with women without reserving constituencies just for women.
Any policy for women will only come into force if and only if Parliament shows political will to do so. Since 1996 Parliament has been delaying the process, and a number of committees have submitted their reports emphasizing the importance of participation of women in the lawmaking body. Even after that the bill has been lapsed four times by different Governments belonging to various political parties. This shows the psyche of every Indian that a woman is unfit for Parliament.
This psyche is often shattered when an Indian woman makes the most dynamic prime minister of all time, when a woman is made the speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, when a woman is made the Chief Justice of a High Court and when a woman signs a bill which was passed in a male-dominated Parliament while sitting in the office of the President of India.
“Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.”[24]
― Karl Marx
[1]“Women in national parliaments- situation as of 1 February 2019”, Inter-Parliamentary Union.
[2] Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, United Nations, A/CONF.177/20/Rev.1, Article 181.
[3] Rudi Heredia, Holding Up Half the Sky: Reservations for Women in India, 47 Economic and Political Weekly, 51-62 (2012).
[4]Sruthi Radhakrishnan, New Lok Sabha has the highest number of Women MPs, The Hindu, May 27, 2019 at 9.
[5]Jawaharlal Nehru, Letters For A Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru To His Chief Ministers 1947-1963 615-620, (Madhav Khosla ed., Penguin Allen Lane 2014).
[6] Misogyny Stalks Parliament: The only way to make Parliament more progressive is to increase the number of women, 48 Economic and Political Weekly 13 ( 2013).
[7] Usha Nair, All India Womens’ Conference at a Glance – The first 25 years 1927 – 1952, All India Women’s Conference, aiwc.org.in/pdf/History.pdf.
[8] Constituent Assembly Debates, Speech by Renuka Ray, Vol. 4, Jul. 18, 1947.
[9] S.Irudaya Rajan & J. Retnakumar, Womens’ Reservation Bill: Some emerging issues, 40 Economic and Political Weekly, 4190-4192 (2005).
[10] The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, Bill No. XXX-C of 2008, lapsed in 2010.
[11] 26 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi 2-4 (1d ed., Vero Verlag 2016) (1967).
[12] Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Archive, Part I (6 May 2008), http://164.100.47.5/Bullitensessions/sessionno/213/060508.pdf.
[13] Supra note 10.
[14] Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, Thirty Sixth Report on The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, Rajya Sabha Secretariat (2009).
[15]Women’s Reservation Bill – The story so far, The Hindu, March 7, 2015 at 14.
[16] Supra note 14.
[17] INDIA CONST. art. 243.
[18] Nirmala buch, From Oppression to Assertion: Women and Panchayats in India 166-170 (1st ed. 2010).
[19] End ‘sarpanch pati’ practice, says Modi, The Hindu Apr. 24, 2015 at 26.
[20] K. V. Viswanathaiah, Place and role of Party Whips in Democratic Legislatures in India, 28 IJPS (1967).
[21] Suman Ojha, Reservation of Women in the Indian Parliament: Lessons from other countries, 70 IJPS 471-479 (2009).
[22] Id.
[23] Allwood Gill & Khursheed Wadia, Increasing Women’s Representation in France and India, 37 Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne De Science Politique 375–393 (2004).
[24] Marx & Engles Correspondence, Marx to Kugelmann in Hanover, International Publishers (1968),
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/68_12_12-abs.htm.
