The Constitution(One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 popularly referred to as Women’s Reservation Bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam has been passed by both the Houses of Parliament. The bill seeks to provide one-third reservation for women in the Lok sabha, State legislative assemblies and the legislative assembly of the National Capital territory of Delhi. However, the bill specifies that the provisions related to the reservation of seats for women shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is conducted following the first census after it’s enactment.Over the years, several attempts were made to make a law for reservation of seats for women in the parliament and state legislative assemblies, notably in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2008. However, the first three bills were lapsed due to the lack of political consensus following the dissolution of their respective lok sabhas. The 2008 bill was passed by the upper house of parliament but it too lapsed with the dissolution of Lok sabha.
Need:
According to the recent Inter Parliamentary Union Report India ranks 141 in the representation of women in Parliament. Where out of 542 members, a total of 78 seats are held by women, which is less than 15%. In the Rajya sabha this figure is approximately 11%. While it is 61.3% in Rwanda which took top position. Among our immediate neighbours India falls behind Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. According to the Global Gender Gap 2023, India ranks 127 on the index out of 146 countries. The democratic deficiency poses a significant hindrance to the attainment of rapid economic development.
Salient features of the bill:
The bill proposes insertion of new Articles namely article 330A and 332A and addition of new clause under Article 239 AA ensuring one-third reservation to women in the Lok sabha, State legislative assemblies and the Delhi legislative assembly respectively. Article 334A has also been inserted by the bill which says that reservation shall come into effect after delimitation is conducted which in turn depends on the next census and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of 15 years from such commencement. Rotation of seats reserved for women shall take effect after each subsequent exercise of delimitation as the Parliament may by law determine.
Issues:
It is doubtful whether reservation will give real power to women or not. There is high chances that male leader uses women as proxies and wielding the real power.
Reservation of seats in the Parliament might prevent capable men from winning those places by restricting the voters’ choice to women candidates.
There is a possibility of merit being ignored through reservation. There may be allegations that women are not eligible to compete on the basis of merit. In such a situation, there is a possibility that they will not be considered for general seats and they will be limited to reserved seats only.
Reservation may only help privileged women, making things worse for underprivileged and vulnerable groups.
Considering the underrepresentation of women in legislative bodies and positive effects of reservation of women in panchayats and municipalities, it can be said that women’s reservation bill is a good move towards the empowerment of women. Now it will be the responsibility of women to make good use of the opportunity given to them and does not allow themselves to be proxies. They should ensure that they fulfill the responsibilities given to them. And the role of the society will be that they show confidence in women and accept them as leaders. Because this law will be of no use if society as a whole does not accept women as leaders. And in the past, we have witnessed a lot of female leaders who were successful in their roles. True empowerment of women will require greater participation of women in the decision making process as they bring diverse viewpoints to the table.
