On September 12, 1996 the controversial Women’s Reservation Bill that proposes to reserve 33.33 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women, was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Bill proposes reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making. Women have never found ample representation in governance. They are still poorly represented in the legislatures. The current Lok Sabha stands testimony to this fact: of 539 members only 44 are women. The Bill, vehemently propagated by female parliament members is bound to result in better representation of women in governance. However, in the eleven years since it was first proposed, no real headway has been made in getting the Bill passed, the main reason being lack of political consensus. Opposition to the Bill has primarily arisen because of the fear of various political parties that many of their male leaders will not get a chance to fight elections if one-third of the seats are reserved for women. The other argument against the Bill has been that it is likely to only serve the interests of women from elitist groups and will thus cause further discrimination of women. This, they insist in unlikely to help representation of the poor or the backward classes.  Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party head Mulayam Singh Yadav have, from day one, spearheaded the opposition against the Bill. Laloo Prasad Yadav has stated that the Bill would deny adequate representation to other sections of the society. Mulayam Singh Yadav has stated that if inadequacy of representation is the issue, why not reservation for Muslim women? They however don’t contest the need for better representation of women in Parliament. All agree that reservation for women is a must, but they continue to differ on the quantum of reservation. It is time that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally arrives at a political consensus on the issue, addresses the matter of better representation of women in Indian governance, and helps the Bill see the light of the day.
Rabia Manzoor
rabia.taseer@gmail.com

Lastupdate on : Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
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