The Woman's Reservation Bill

Today's Supreme Court ruling on the reservations for OBCs has not come as a surprise. It creates a precedent for reservations to be seen as a cure for many ills. Let us think about the next case of reservations that is on its way - the Women's Reservation Bill.

Determined to find out the rationale for the Women's Reservation Bill, I raised the issue with a Member of Parliament. I asked him, “When more than 50 per cent of the electorate consists of women – why do you need the Women's Reservation Bill?”

He said, “Parties do not find suitable women candidates."

“I am sure that if you look hard enough, especially as there is such a large number of women, you could find the right type of woman candidate, and perhaps people will vote for them,” I said.

He replied, “Even if we look hard enough and find good candidates, it will not work. It is sad that women do not generally vote for women in elections if there are male candidates. Men do not like women to join politics – therefore do not vote for them. That is the main problem. --- The solution is the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’.”

A senior party official, when asked why his party had not nominated more women in the last elections, explained that they were not able to find winnable women candidates. In a democratic set-up parties have to offer the most winnable candidate to the electorate. The solution to giving more representation of women in Parliament was the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’.

From the perspective of the official of the political party, the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ will create suitable candidates, though such candidates are not available now. The perception of the Member of Parliament was that we need the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ because women will not vote for women and men will not vote for women.

It is an unusual phenomenon, when in a practicing democracy; the majority needs reservations to protect its interests. With nearly 51 per cent of the population in the country as women, we have a ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ waiting on the sidelines in Parliament.

Women in India have been ministers, ambassadors, and even a Prime Minister. Examined next to other nations, India’s record of women in politics is impressive. In all general elections until 1998, 17.16 percent of all women candidates were elected to the Lok Sabha, as opposed to only 10.32 percent of all male candidates. Even among candidates of recognized parties, 32.53 percent of women candidates were elected, as opposed to 26.5 percent of male candidates. Though statistics show that women candidates do not seem to suffer discrimination at the hands of voters, yet political parties shy to nominate more women.

The buzz word is “empowerment”. Do women constitute a homogeneous constituency with common interests and goals which need to be represented in Parliament? Politics of special constituencies works best when the affected people feel that they can reap rewards. How will the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ empower the poorest and neediest of women folk? How does it ensure other changes such as social reform, land reform, literacy, etc. take place?

If the public and political parties create conditions that women look upon themselves as an important and distinct political constituent of society, women will be able to fill up all the seats in Parliament, without recourse to the provisions of the Bill. Possibly, there would be no men in Parliament.

The Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Backward Classes have changed the face of politics of the country by considering themselves as a political constituency. V.P. Singh destroyed much of the traditional vote bank of the India National Congress Party with the Mandal Commission Report. Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, and Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar, are prime examples of the success of creating special political constituencies. The OBCs now comprise 280 MPs in a House of 542.

Common questions to the Bill are; how will constituencies be chosen; the will the process of rotation work; what will be the duration for which the preference will be experimented with; and how will the social composition of the proposed representation adequately reflect society.

Sadly, the Draft Bill is contrived and complex. The Bill mechanically provides for entry of women members to fill vacancies in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas. Such mechanical reservation and rotation will result in two thirds of incumbent members being forcibly unseated in every general election.

Will candidates be able to nurse their constituencies on a long term basis? The rotation system will select and randomly reserve constituencies for women. It will deprive the electorate in these constituencies the right to elect the best candidate. As legislators will not have to seek re-election from the same constituency, they will not be accountable to their constituents. It will make it unnecessary for women to build their credibility as effective representatives. Politics will become more materialistic and the political process more unstable.

The Bill, as it is framed, will also encourage sections of the population with separate identities — tribals, caste groups, linguistic sub cultures, religious minorities, etc. to ask for reservations. We must also be open to the possibility of newer and newer sub-groups wanting recognition, representation and reservation in the political and economic arenas. Should the number of men in Parliament shrink, will we be discussing a ‘Men’s Reservation Bill’ so that men also find a place in Parliament.

The Forum for Democratic Reforms proposed an alternative to the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ that was endorsed by the Election Commission. The suggestion was to introduce legislation in Parliament that made it mandatory on parties to increase the nomination of the number of women candidates. We need to think again on the proposal put forward by The Forum for Democratic Reforms as it has distinct advantages over the reservation system proposed.

Democracy is about freedom of choice. In our system each person has one vote and an opportunity to exercise his or her franchise for the best candidate to represent the Legislature and Parliament.

I am not for ‘reservations’ as Article Fourteen of India's Constitution states, "The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India". Nonetheless, I do believe that there are special circumstances under which ‘reservations’ are justified - in the areas of self improvement and empowerment through the right to education or the acquisition of skills.

Reservations should not include functional areas or offices of profit. There is a need to look at the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ once again, to remove its limitations. This should be done only when we can convince ourselves that the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ is indeed essential.

We should not forget what Justice R.V. Raveendran wrote in the OBC judgment, "When more or more people aspire for 'backwardness' instead of 'forwardness' the country itself stagnates." Perhaps, the final answer lies by the Parliament using the logic used by the Supreme Court regarding the death sentence, ‘reservations’ should be practiced in the rarest of rare cases.