‘Woman' the occupant of sub-ordinate position in the society, one who is still known by her father's and then her husband's name is striving to make her mark in a country where the deprived and exploited classes have been reaping the advantages of reservation since independence and whosoever remained was given this privilege in 1992. Women who were never considered vote bank didn't get the taste of fruits which the exploited and downtrodden got when our constitution incorporated the provision of reservation in our constitution. She was though given some reservation in jobs at State level, yet no honest attempt has been made so far to bring women at par with men. With reservation touching 50% now we cannot expect reservation for women in government jobs but women hoped to see a dawn with women reservation in Parliament.
‘History repeats itself’. So does the act of presenting the Women Reservation Bill every year, Political parties having quite a good number of seats in the Parliament swore their support to the Bill but then a farce was played out by the so-called radical politicians, jumping into the well of the house, tearing copies of the bill and making impossible for proceedings to continue. The house got adjourned and the Bill was thrown into the dustbin till the whole process was repeated again. With great difficulty the Bill has been finally passed in Rajya Sabha but it will become an Act only after the Government succeeds in executing the mammoth task of getting the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha which remains a distant dream.
Women are not asking for grace and charity. Their contribution to the cause of nation building exceeds that of men. International Labour Organization study shows that while women represent 50 percent of the world adult population and a third of the official labour force, they perform nearly two-third of all working hours, receive a tenth of world income and own less than one percent of world property. Therefore reservation for women is not a bounty but only an honest recognition of their contribution to social development.
The Bill in its current form envisages reserving 181 seats in Parliament for women. This means that 181 male members of Parliament would not be able to contest elections if the Bill is passed. Also, there is to be a rotation of seats i.e. a male Member of Parliament cannot represent the same constituency for more than two consecutive terms. Here lies the rub. 181 seats in Parliament is too great a number to be sacrificed for the mere ideal of women empowerment. The clause of rotation of seats is seen by the opponents of Bill striking at the very heart of democracy as according to their logic, the representatives will not get a chance to nurture his constituency nor the electorate will get a chance to reward or punish their representative. The arguments whatsoever cannot be accepted as the sole basis for discarding women's Reservation Bill altogether.
Moreover when the so called backward and fundamentalist society like Pakistan can grant 33% reservation to women in its senate, why should India the largest democracy in the world lag behind? Making amends for its failure to provide 33% reservation for women in Parliament, the UPA governments recently approved a proposal for fifty percent reservation for women in the Panchayats at all levels. Presently there is one third reservation for women in the Panchayats.
It is high time we gave women their due not in jobs then at least in power sharing before the demand turns into a mass movement and women are forced to send out a message to all political parties, warning them that women will withdraw their backing in the next election if they do not support the Bill now.
