Why in news?

• Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to get the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Lok Sabha.

What is the bill?

• Women’s Reservation Bill [The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008]
• Also known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, it seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
• Introduced by the UPA-I government in May 2008, it also provides that one third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups.
• Similar Bills have been introduced thrice before in the late 90’s but lapsed with the dissolution of their respective Lok Sabhas.

Timeline of the bill

Features of the Bill

• The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by Parliament.
• One third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies.
• Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.
• Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.

Why it should be done

• It will bring gender equality in our polity
• It will help to raise women related issues in the Parliament such as sexual violence, dowry, domestic violence, gender parity etc
• The performance of women in the Local Self Government bodies has been commendable. The same will be extended to the Parliament as well
• Several third world countries have successfully experimented the provision

Why it shouldn't be done

• It will only result in proxy where the husband will have his wife elected as the people's representative
• Convicted politicians will have the opportunity to have their wives represent them
• The system of rotational representation will result in a great churning in the polity as every year minimum 1/3rd new representatives will be elected
• It will weaken the accountability of the elected member as he may not be contesting the next election on account of reservation
• It will deprive the country of talented legislators
• It will only perpetuate the weakness of women in our polity
• Experience in the 3rd World countries shows that although the number of women representatives has risen it has not had a qualitative impact on the status of women in the society
• It diverts attention from the larger issues of electoral reform such as criminalisation of politics and inner party democracy.
• Women from weaker section will not be able to contest on account of lower levels of internal women empowerment
• Reservation of seats in Parliament restricts choice of voters

2 Alternatives

• Two alternatives have been suggested by some experts:
1. reservation for candidates within political parties and
2. dual member constituencies where some constituencies shall have two candidates, one being a woman

 Pros and cons of reservation in political parties and dual member constituencies

Political parties

Pros

• Provide more democratic choice to voters
• Allow more flexibility to parties to choose candidates and constituencies depending on local political and social factors
•  Can nominate women from minority communities in areas where this will be an electoral advantage
•  Allow flexibility in the number of women in Parliament

Cons

• No guarantee that a significant number of women would get elected
• Political parties may assign women candidates to constituencies where they are weak
• Might lead to resentment if a woman is accommodated to the disadvantage of a stronger male candidate

Dual- member

constituencies

Pros 

• Does not decrease the democratic choice for voters
• Does not discriminate against male candidates
• Might make it easier for members to nurture constituencies whose average size is about 2 million people

Cons

•  Sitting members may have to share their political base
• Women may become secondary persons or add-ons
• To fulfil criteria of 33% women, half of the seats need to be dual constituencies.
• This would increase the total number of MPs by 50%b which could make deliberation in Parliament more difficult