Women’s Reservation: A Justified Demand, Here’s Why

By Moulshri Kanodia, German Chancellor Fellow at Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, & Researcher at Harriet Taylor Mill Institute, Berlin School of Economics and Law.

In recent times, there is an increasing discussion on whether a higher number of women’s representation in parliament can lead our nation to a different paradigm altogether in parliamentary politics.
Rwanda is a fantastic case study to justify the importance of women’s participation in politics. According to The Global Gender Gap Report 2017 of the World Economic Forum, Rwanda has closed 82% of its gender gap; one sub-index in which Rwanda leads is ‘Political Empowerment’; the country now has a share of highest number of women parliamentarians in the world—64%.
In 2003, the new constitution in Rwanda mandated 30% of representation at all levels of government to be by women. Ever since, Rwanda has seen an increase in women’s participation from 17% to 64% within only 25 years. As a result, the country has been able to adopt a more gender sensitive constitution, and their policies are more thought out in terms of extending benefits to every community within the society.
On the other hand, India ranks 15 in ‘Political Empowerment’ sub-index of the Gender Gap Report. More than 50 years have passed since the nation’s first female Prime Minister was elected in 1966; yet, India is still not able to close the gender gap in political empowerment. This evidently shows that India requires making progress on this dimension, and introducing a new generation of women political leaders.
Sarojini Naidu, the acclaimed freedom fighter, was against women’s reservation, as she believed that our women are not weak, and a reservation could create her stature as inferior. I cannot agree with her more, but it is also true that due to the power mongering and hoarding tendencies of the other sex, Indian women are as of now still not able to enter the political institutions in numbers proportionate to their population. And this, over the years, has emerged as a matter of serious concern.
The Women’s Reservation Bill, or The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, which seeks to reserve nearly 33% seats in Lok Sabha as well as the state Assemblies for the country’s women, has been one of the longest pending legislations in the history of Indian democracy.
According to a UN Women report, the percentage of women in ministerial positions in India till January 2017 is 18.5%. In Lok Sabha, it is 11.8 % (64 out of 542 total members); while in Rajya Sabha it is 11.0% (27 out of 245 total members). The average representation of women in Lower and Upper House of the Parliament in Asia is more than that in India, that is, 19.6% and 16.3% respectively. Even the conservative Arab states are also doing better than India in terms of women’s participation, with 18.9% in lower house and 12.6% in Upper House respectively!
In a country like India where women constitute 48.4% of the population, it is indeed dismal to notice that our Parliament on an average has only 11% women to represent almost half of the population of the country. A long-term positive preferential treatment or affirmative action is hence required to end ‘Opportunity Hoarding’; this would help establish a good social order where substantial equality of opportunity is achievable for both sexes, and life opportunities are detached from male privileges. This is very much in line with John Rawls ideas on justice where he says; “those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system.”
Further, it must be stressed that reservation is necessary but not sufficient. Creating a cross-party caucus of women parliamentarians wherein they can unite as women on issues concerning the larger women population, irrespective of political parties. This will help them not to succumb to negative pressures conforming to party will or getting reduced to a mere ‘puppet candidate’. Also, it is fundamentally important that political parties invest in women candidates, and hand out more tickets to women candidates for contesting elections at the least.
Reservation is a tool to ensure not only adequate representation but also adequate delivery of local public goods to disadvantaged groups. Women leaders make a difference on the ground as has been seen in reservations of Panchayati Raj in the past. Correcting imbalances in political agency does result in correcting inequalities in other spheres, as has been aptly emphasized by Amartya Sen. On the other hand, in terms of policy agendas, women reservation can help women claim their basic rights, and minority issues can be raised easily and more often than before.
To review existing and proposed legislations with an eye on gender issues and to remove the unfortunate discriminatory elements, women reservation passes all tests, enabling women to enter the mainstream political life of the country. Once women enter the policy discourses as equal stakeholders, it will create a ripple effect and there will be a substantial change regarding perception of women’s rights at workplace, in households, and so on.
Time is ripe to revitalize this debate both vertically and horizontally to create a nexus wherein the combined strength and will of women shall shake the parliament, and change the narrative in favour of the country’s women at large.