33% fairer

The legislative agenda of the special Parliament session, beginning today, is still not known definitively. But one of the speculated agenda items is a bill to reserve one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for women. The country and its women have come a long way since the passage of such a legislation was first attempted in 1996. The vociferous opposition that every government attempting this has faced so far, has also muted. Brutish scenes of male MPs tearing up women’s reservation bills in the past, are now unlikely to be repeated. The socio-economic argument for this reservation was strong even three decades ago. What the passage of time has done is shifted the politics to the same page.

BJP committed to a constitutional amendment towards this reservation in both its 2014 and 2019 manifestos. Individually many male politicians must still be offering resistance within the party.

But today’s BJP can tame rebels. And the party has a chance to tell voters it has delivered the boldest reform for women since the Constitution delivered universal adult franchise. Of course, Congress will remind voters how it spearheaded the transformative one-third reservation for women in panchayati raj institutions. Plus, how Sonia Gandhi’s staunch leadership ensured a women’s reservation bill through the Rajya Sabha in 2010, in a much more hostile time. But almost certainly, the governing party will bag the bigger bragging rights. As for reasons the politics on women’s reservation has shifted so much since 2010, look at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections voting data: women’s turnout beat men’s for the first time – a trend also being seen in many assembly polls.

Women are the focus of many more welfare schemes, their issues are much more centrestage. But their representation in legislatures still remains 0-14%. The same year the women’s reservation bill passed RS the budget had spoken of double digit growth – another unmet goal. Policymakers should know there’s a close and much-studied connection between high growth and women’s empowerment, and the latter will get a major boost if the number of women more than double in our legislatures. Noting how much women have been empowered since 1947 or 1996 cannot hide how much discrimination still persists, or how much it is costing India in wealth and wellbeing.

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