{"id":50608,"date":"2019-07-26T19:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T13:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=50608"},"modified":"2019-07-26T16:37:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T11:07:29","slug":"7-pm-making-national-legislatures-more-gender-balanced-26th-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-making-national-legislatures-more-gender-balanced-26th-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Making national legislatures more gender balanced | 26th July, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Women\nrepresentation in Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world\u2019s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Global\ngender gap report:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time. <\/li><li>The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks 149 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: <ul><li>Economic Participation and Opportunity<\/li><li>Educational Attainment<\/li><li>Health and Survival<\/li><li>Political Empowerment.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>The rankings are designed to create global awareness of the challenges posed by gender gaps, and the opportunities created by reducing them.<\/li><li>The 2018 report\u2019s key findings include:<ul><li>Across the four subindexes, on average, the largest gender disparity is on Political Empowerment, which today maintains a gap of 77.1%. The Economic Participation and Opportunity gap is the second-largest at 41.9%, while the Educational Attainment and Health and Survival gaps are significantly lower at 4.4% and 4.6%, respectively. <\/li><li>When it comes to political and economic leadership, the world still has a long way to go. Across the 149 countries assessed, there are just 17 that currently have women as heads of state, while, on average, just 18% of ministers and 24% of parliamentarians globally are women.<\/li><li>The most gender-equal country to date is Iceland. It has closed over 85% of its overall gender gap. Iceland is followed by Norway (83.5%), Sweden and Finland (82.2%).<\/li><li>India ranks at 108 out of 149 countries. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"321\" height=\"287\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/south-asia.jpg?resize=321%2C287&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50610\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Inter-Parliamentary\nUnion (IPU):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The IPU is the world\u2019s organization of\nparliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political\norganization, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. <\/li><li>It promotes democracy, helps parliaments\nto become stronger, younger, gender-balanced, and more diverse. It also defends\nthe human rights of parliamentarians. <\/li><li>Twice a year, the IPU assembles over\n1500 delegates in a world parliament, bringing a parliamentary dimension to the\nwork of the United Nations and the implementation of the 2030 global goals.<\/li><li>India ranked 149 among 192 countries in\nIPU 2018 report. <\/li><li>Rawanda tops the list with 61.3% seats\nin lower house and 38.5% in upper house occupied by women. Since 2003, the\ncountry has implemented a legislated quota of 30% in all elected position which\nhas enabled a steady inflow of women in parliament.<\/li><li>Nepal which ranked 36 in IPU list has\nearmarked 33% seats for women in all state institutions including legislature.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Women\nrepresentation in Indian Parliament:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>716 women candidates contested the General Election.&nbsp; Out of\nwhich, 78 women MPs have been elected to the 17<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Lok\nSabha.&nbsp; In 2014, 62 women MPs were elected.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The representation of women MPs in Lok Sabha is slowly improving\nfrom 5% in the 1<sup>st<\/sup>&nbsp;Lok Sabha to 14 % in the 17<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Lok\nSabha.<\/li><li>Though the percentage of women MPs has increased over the years,\nit is still lower in comparison to some countries. These include &nbsp;Rwanda\n(61%), South Africa (43%), UK (32%), USA (24%), Bangladesh (21%).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"272\" height=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/unnamed-file.jpg?resize=272%2C214&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50611\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment)\nBill, 2008:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It seeks to\nreserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state\nlegislative assemblies.<\/li><li>One third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled\nCastes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups in the\nLok Sabha and the legislative assemblies.<\/li><li>Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different\nconstituencies in the state or union territory.<\/li><li>Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after\nthe commencement of this Amendment Act.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Issues and\nAnalysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>There are divergent views on the\nreservation policy. Proponents stress the necessity of affirmative action to\nimprove the condition of women. Some recent studies on panchayats have shown\nthe positive effect of reservation on empowerment of women and on allocation of\nresources.<\/li><li>Opponents argue that it would perpetuate\nthe unequal status of women since they would not be perceived to be competing\non merit. They also contend that this policy diverts attention from the larger\nissues of electoral reform such as criminalisation of politics and inner party\ndemocracy.<\/li><li>Reservation of seats in Parliament\nrestricts choice of voters to women candidates. Therefore, some experts have\nsuggested alternate methods such as reservation in political parties and dual\nmember constituencies.<\/li><li>Rotation of reserved constituencies in\nevery election may reduce the incentive for an MP to work for his constituency\nas he may be ineligible to seek re-election from that constituency.<\/li><li>The report examining the 1996 women\u2019s\nreservation Bill recommended that reservation be provided for women of Other\nBackward Classes (OBCs) once the Constitution was amended to allow for\nreservation for OBCs. It also recommended that reservation be extended to the\nRajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils. Neither of these recommendations has\nbeen incorporated in the Bill.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pros and Cons of reservation in political parties and dual member constituencies:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"639\" height=\"429\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/adv.jpg?resize=639%2C429&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50613\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nforward:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>National\nparliaments are the cornerstone of democracy. Parliamentarians are ultimately\nresponsible for the enactment of sound law and supervision of the process of\ngovernment. The concept of democracy entails equal rights and representation\nfor all sections of the community. The right of women to vote is now established\nin most parts of the world but their participation in political and\nparliamentary life still falls far short of what would be equitable. There is\nurgent need to bring legislation with respect to reservation of seats in\nparliament to ensure equal participation of women in the development of India.\nContinuous lapse of the \u2018Women Reservation Bill\u2019 shows lack of political will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/making-national-legislatures-more-gender-balanced\/article28713195.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/making-national-legislatures-more-gender-balanced\/article28713195.ece<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Women representation in Parliament. Gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world\u2019s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. Global gender gap report: The Global Gender Gap&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-making-national-legislatures-more-gender-balanced-26th-july-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Making national legislatures more gender balanced | 26th July, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1702093632},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}