33%: The Details – Implementing women’s reservation will need a lot of work

Source: The post is based on articles:

“Women’s reservation Bill – finally, a House of equality” published in The Indian Express on 20^th September 2023 and

“33%: The Details – Implementing women’s reservation will need a lot of work, some of it complex & politically fraught” published in The Times of India on 20^th September 2023.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Governance – Government Policies & Intervention

The points of these articles have been covered in the following article:

Women Reservation Bill – Explained Pointwise

News: The Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced in Parliament, proposing a 33% reservation for women in legislative bodies. The article discusses the Bill and explains how reservation can elevate women’s status in society.

How has the reservation of seats for women in local bodies contributed to improving their status in society?

Reserving seats for women in local government positions like sarpanches, block pramukhs, etc. increased their respect at home and in the community, reduced domestic abuse, and ensured that women in similar roles were heard and respected.

Women’s empowerment is often viewed as urban-centrically, but reservations in local bodies, like panchayat elections, offer rural women a distinct experience that brings them respect and recognition in their communities.

How will the Women’s Reservation Bill grant recognition to women?

The Women’s Reservation Bill aims to increase women’s representation. Increased female presence will boost confidence in being heard and will build a supportive ecosystem for women’s rights.

The Women’s Reservation Bill could increase women MPs from 82 to 181. It seeks sub-reservation for SCs, STs, and Anglo Indians.

It proposes adding a clause to Article 330 A, reserving one-third of Lok Sabha seats for women within the SC and ST categories and one-third directly elected women.

The Bill also seeks to insert a subsection in Clause 2 of Article 239 AA, reserving seats for women in Delhi’s legislative assembly, with one-third within SC and ST categories.

Therefore, this legislative effort is considered a progressive step for participatory democracy, which values inclusion rather than exclusion. However, despite this, there are still concerns present with the Bill.

What are the concerns with the Bill?

Enactment of the Bill: Reservation for women in Parliament depends on the census and delimitation process.

However, the census has been delayed and delimitation could be politically sensitive, especially impacting southern India, which has seen slower population growth due to its development progress.

Hence, the 2002 freeze on delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies will continue until after 2026, which is around the time, the delayed Census 2021 data is expected to be released.

This means that reservation for women in Parliament will likely not start until after 2026.

Reservation within Reservation: The new bill reserves one-third of seats for women, with a further reservation within that quota for women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

However, some political groups have also called for the inclusion of OBC and minority reservation as well. 

Rotation of Reserved Seats: The Bill proposes to rotate reserved seats after each delimitation exercise which will be determined by Parliament. However, it is unclear how this will be implemented.

Rotating one-third of seats before each election is being considered the fairest approach. However, since the bill is expected to come into effect after the next census and delimitation, there is time to find other solutions.

What lies ahead?

The Bill ensures women’s representation, transforming politics and addressing social inequalities.

It aims to create an enlightened democracy by removing entry barriers and fundamentally reshaping parliamentary democracy, giving Indian women their rightful place in Parliament.