The Woman reservation bill is touted as the landmark bill that would empower and emancipate Indian woman of all ills by giving them 33 percent reservation in lower houses of Parliament and state legislative assemblies. To ensure that all the constituencies get a woman candidate once, the bill proposes to have a rotating system so that one third reserved seats keeps changing every election.
The idea, prima facie looks noble. The bill would enable women to be equally represented in law making bodies of the country. The plight of woman, in general, been poor in India. And if woman are given oppurtunies in Parliament, they would better be able to tackle issues facing women such as female foeticide, declining sex ratio, dowry, etc.
The success of woman reservation in the panchayat system further strenghtens the case of the bill. Not only are woman led panchayats extremly well return they are also less corrupt as compare to the one's run by male leaders.
However, there are threats too. The legislation may become a pliable tool in the hands of influential politicians who would use it to push the candidature of their wives, daughters and nieces. Nepotism is not new to India. The woman politicians who would benifit most would be likes of Priya Dutt, Geeta Koda, Dimple Yadav, Rabri Dev all kins of the influential politicians. This also explains why quota within quota is being demanded for the muslim and the backward woman. It is likely that the political parties will not be able to find many suitable woman candidates and may end up giving tickets to woman with a family background.
The second obvious problem is the rotating system by which every constituency will be reserved for woman once in 3 years. This would reduce the incentive for the incumbent to nurse their constituency as they may not be able to reseek mandate from the same constituency. As incumbents would no longer be afraid of the outcomes in the next election, they would become less accountable and power in hands of voters would also be reduced.
Further, women don't represent a homogeneous group. The ills they face are partly determined by the class, caste, community and region in which they are situated and not only by their gender. In fact, the problem that women are facing in kerela are very different from that of women of haryana (Kerela has sex ratio of 1015, Haryana has a sex ratio of 833). In such a scenario, the loyalty of woman towards their caste and community would be more than to a gender based solidarity. And this is clearly demonstrated by the demand for a quota within quota. The muslim and the backward woman know that a woman outside their clan wouln't know of their problems.
It is beyond doubt that woman in India represent a marginalized group. But, so are farmers, people from less developed regions, the Muslims and other minority groups. In fact, the list of marginalized groups in India is endless. And providing reservation to solve their problems is no realistic solution. If the government is really serious about improving the plight of woman then it should bring change at a more fundamental level. A change in the ghetto Indian mentality is needed so that woman can claim seats in the legislative bodies without the quota.
Lastly, the woman bill proposes that the life of the legislation would only be 15 years and would automatically be reversed/revoked/annuled if it doesn't work. But resrvations have a history of not going away. The SC/ST reservation were introduced for just 10 harmless years. But, sixty years later, no political party today dare ease out even the 'creamy layer' among them, let alone dismantling the rervations all together. We are likely to be stuck with this brainless scheme which functions like musical chair. It would further wreck our already fragile democracy.
