Women’s Reservation Bill

Why in News?

• As per the media sources, the Union Cabinet cleared the women’s reservation Bill, which seeks to provide a 33% quota to women in Parliament and state legislatures.
• The Bill, stuck for 27 years, is likely to be tabled in the ongoing special session of the Parliament in the coming days.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why in News?
• A Brief History of the Women’s Reservation Bill
• Need for the Women Reservation in the Legislatures
• Pros and Cons of the Women’s Reservation Bill
• News Summary Regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill

A Brief History of the Women’s Reservation Bill:

• 1996 (First attempt): By the United Front govt
  • The Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill 1996 was introduced in the Lok Sabha. It sought to reserve one-third of seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures
  • The Bill was referred to a Joint Committee, which proposed to change the Bill’s wording of “not less than one third” to “as nearly as may be, one-third” so as to leave no scope for ambiguity.
  • The panel also suggested that there should be reservation of seats for women in the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils. It even stated that the benefit of reservation to the OBCs should be considered.
  • According to the panel, women reservation should be for a period of 15 years. It needs to be reviewed after that to decide whether the reservations should continue.
• Between 1998 and 2004: The BJP-led NDA government tried to get the Bill passed multiple times. But failed due to opposition from coalition partners and others.
• Between 2004 and 2014: UPA pushes the Bill
  • In 2008, the UPA government finally introduced the Bill in the Rajya Sabha and was later referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which recommended passing the Bill in its present form without any delay.
  • In 2010, the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill by over a two-third majority.
  • However, due to differences within the UPA and even within the Cabinet, the Bill was never brought to Lok Sabha, and it lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lower House.
• After 2014:
  • The BJP’s 2014 manifesto had said that the party is committed to 33% reservation in parliamentary and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment. The 2019 manifesto repeated the same words.
  • For the ruling party, women have emerged as a significant constituency and the party has benefitted from the goodwill generated by women-focussed welfare schemes like the Ujjwala Yojna.

Need for the Women Reservation in the Legislatures:

• The move comes when the number of women candidates contesting Lok Sabha elections has slowly and steadily increased from just 45 in the 2nd Lok Sabha elections of 1957 to 726 in 2019.
• Women’s turnout has also been steadily increasing.
  • 62% of the male voters and 46.6% of the women electors turned out to vote in 1962.
  • Women had left men behind, at 67.2% voting compared to 67%, by the time of the 2019 polls.
• Correspondingly, the number of women candidates in the Parliament has also risen. However, their share in the Lok Sabha ranks remains low.
  • In the 1st Lok Sabha, there were 22 women MPs (4.41% of the total 489).
  • The figure of 78 elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the highest ever, but it is still only 14.36% of the total.
  • That makes it less than half of the 33% seats envisioned to be kept aside for women by the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Pros and Cons of the Women’s Reservation Bill:

• Pros:
  • Affirmative action will lead to the empowerment of women. For example, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (includes provision of reservation at panchayat level for women) led to gender sensitive decisions, increased responsiveness, etc.
  • Decriminalisation of politics, as there will be fewer criminal charges against women legislators.
• Cons:
  • Distracts attention away from major electoral reforms such as intra-party democracy, etc.
  • Limits voters’ choice.
  • Rotation of reserved constituencies may limit an MP's incentive to work.

News Summary Regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill:

• Since the government announced the special session just over a month after the Monsoon Session concluded, without identifying its agenda, the buzz over the Women's Bill has been intense.
• The Bill will be brought in the ongoing session but there are many ifs and buts, so the implementation is unlikely before the next (2029) Lok Sabha election.
• Most probably, it will take place only after the delimitation (which is expected to be held in 2026) but the process will begin soon.
• While most parties (in the INDIA bloc) are in favour of women’s reservation, some (SP and RJD) want “quota within the quota”, or caste and community-based quotas within the 33% quota.

Q1) How the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act empowers women in India?

The 73rd amendment, which gave constitutional status to PRIs in India, handed over the reins of power to the people at the grassroot level with a 33% reservation of certain seats and key positions within the panchayat to women.

Q2) How PM Ujjwala Yojna led to the empowerment of women in India?

The Government of India's PM Ujjwala Yojana (PMUJ)-Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connection is helping rural women through empowering their livelihood and transforming behavioural changes.

Source: Women’s Bill Buzz: Rollout likely after delimitation, probably in 2029 | IE | IE