In the run-up to the Seventeenth General Elections, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that his party, the Biju Janata Dal, would give 33 per cent of Lok Sabha seats from the State for women candidates. Shortly after that, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared that the Trinamul Congress would set aside 40 per cent seats for women for the Lok Sabha elections.
These announcements have brought a renewed interest in the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB), first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1996. After getting circumvented in successive Lok Sabhas, the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. As a Constitution Amendment Bill, the WRB necessarily requires the approval of both Houses of Parliament. Almost a decade later, the Bill – a victim of political bickering and crass manoeuvring – still awaits parliamentary sanction.
Reservation for women in legislative bodies is closely linked to their political participation. The First Lok Sabha had just 22 women out of a total membership of 499 – or 4.41 per cent. In the current Lok Sabha with 545 members, there are 66 women members – or 12.11 per cent, the highest so far. This, though, compares poorly with the global average of 24.3 per cent and even the Asian average of 19.9 per cent.
The Women’s Reservation Bill’s progress since 1996 raises questions ranging from the absurd to the serious. In 1997, Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav objected to the Bill saying it would only help bring to Parliament ‘parkati auretin’ – women who cut their hair short – a jibe at ‘westernized,’ modern women. To such politicians, the modern woman is the very antithesis to the devoted, culturally-tutored, subservient Bharatiya naari, the only kind of woman who has legitimacy as the ‘ideal’ woman.
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