A good move with bad intention
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 21, 2023 -

AFTER nearly three decades of discord, the debate on the issue of reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies has once again come to the fore with the introduction of the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023 in the Indian Parliament on Tuesday.

The Bill which seeks to ensure 'just representation of women in a representative government" by bringing in 33% reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies of a country where women account for almost half of its 950 million registered voters but make for only 15% of Parliament and about 10% of state legislatures has a long history of stalling every time it was brought up for consideration ahd passing in the Parliament.

For the first time, a bill for reservation of seats for women was introduced in September 1996 by the H D Deve Gowda-led United Front Government, and then in December, 1998 and December 1999 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, but nothing came out of these efforts. Later on, the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government tabled a bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2008.

Even though the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill, it got lapsed as the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of the Parliament, did not give the required clearance before its dissolution in 2014.

So, the latest introduction of a Constitutional Amendment Bill to increase the representation of women in decision making bodies after remaining in the cold storage for so long has naturally reignited a debate.

And, along with that a fight for credit-claim between the Opposition and the Ruling parties has ensued, which is rather unfortunate.

It is a good thing that the present NDA-Government has taken out the issue of reservation of seats for women from the cold storage and given a new lease of life.

Once approved, the Bill will ensure that the number of women MPs in Lok Sabha goes up to 181 from the present 82.

It is said that currently women make up only 14 per cent of Parliament and legislatures in India, which is far lower than the world average.

So, the move is definitely a step forward towards empowerment of women in the country.

However, contrary to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said while introducing the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023 as the first proceeding of the House in the New Parliament building, there is nothing historic about the Bill as the greater participation of women as elected public representatives in policy-making at the state and national levels has been a long-felt need.

Apart from presenting the Bill after repackaging it as 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', which literally means "Act to worship women's power', the intention of the NDA government to come up with the Bill at this juncture when Parliamentary election is due next year has come under scrutiny, for some valid reasons.

It's true that Modi government had done nothing on the issue of women reservation for the last nine years in power despite enjoying majority in both houses of the Parliament.

So, the urgency in introduction of the Bill by convening a special session of the Parliament when the winter session is also coming up is questionable.

Moreover, what is the point of passing a Bill now when it can be implemented only by 2029, which is after the completion of delimitation exercise or redrawing of the constituencies based on the first Census conducted following passage of the Bill?

This appears to be nothing but another poll 'jumla' of the Modi government, to borrow the words of Opposition leaders.