We are strange people.
We worship goddesses like Laxmi, Durga, Kali and numerous others with great
fervour in homes and temples across the country. Some people can also be seen
touching the feet of contemporary powerful women like Sonia Gandhi, J.
Jailalitha, Mamta Banerjee, Mayawati, etc. But in real life, many of us subject
our women to all possible kinds of atrocities and deny them even their most
basic rights.
In line with our hypocrisy vis-à-vis women who constitute
half of our populace, the MPs we sent to New Delhi five years ago ensured that
the Women’s Reservation Bill proposing to reserve 33% of seats for
women at all levels of legislature lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th
Lok Sabha. Similar bills had been introduced thrice earlier in 1990s and had met
the same fate.
In
spite of the fact that we had the world’s second woman prime minister way back
in 1966, the number of women in parliament and state assemblies has been
abysmally low. The percentage of women MPs has varied from less than four in
the 6th Lok Sabha to eleven in the 15th. Closer home,
only 5 women (7%) got elected to the Uttarakhand Assembly in 2007 as well as
2012, while the state has sent one woman MP apiece to Rajya and Lok Sabha so far.
To
ensure the right of women to participate in politics, the Women’s Reservation Bill, drafted in 1996, was introduced by the UPA
government in May 2008 in Rajya Sabha during its first tenure. It was duly
passed by Rajya Sabha on 10th March 2010. Our representatives kept the
bill pending in Lok Sabha for four years on some pretext or the other, even as
numerous others were passed with little or no discussion.
Those
opposed to the bill were supporters of the government like Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya
Janata Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party and Trinamool Congress; whereas Janata Dal
United and Shiv Sena were from the NDA camp. BSP’s Mayawati claimed that the bill
was an example of anti-dalit mentality of the Congress and other political
parties, while SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav was not in its favour as he feared his
own political career could come to a premature end if his constituency got
reserved for women! Yadav also made certain unsavoury statements in reference to
the bill.
It is worthwhile to note that this bill had widespread
backing of various women’s organizations across the country; and the ruling
Congress, the opposition BJP and many other parties in the parliament. AIADMK chief
J. Jayalalitha, DMK’s M. Karunanidhi and BJD’s Naveen Patnaik welcomed the bill
and appealed that it be adopted without delay time and again. It also had full support of CPM, CPI, NCP,
Telugu Desam Party, Akali Dal and AGP.
Notwithstanding
a joint appeal to Lok Sabha MPs to pass the bill in its last session by women
leaders Sushma Swaraj (BJP), Sheila Dixit (Congress) and Brinda Karat (CPI-M) from
a shared platform in December 2013 and in spite of the fact that parties
supporting it had more than the required strength to carry it through, it was
not passed; even as the government worked overtime to successfully push the bill for
bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh through both the houses of
parliament in record three days.
Interestingly,
had this bill been passed and had the government lost its majority in the house
as a consequence following withdrawal of support by some of its allies, it
would not have mattered at all at this stage. Sonia Gandhi’s “regret” at the bill
not being passed by Lok Sabha for lack of consensus thus appears hollow.
Whether
our leaders genuinely want the presence of more women in legislature, or their
intent is merely to exploit the issue for garnering votes, will be known to us over
the next few weeks. The onus now is on political parties currently in business
to ensure that women comprise a respectable percentage of the candidates they
field in the forthcoming general elections on their tickets.
Should
they fail to do so, it would perhaps be time for the women of this country and
their well-wishers to dump them altogether and form a new party dominated by
women.
