India's step towards empowering women

THIS week India took a historic step towards empowering women by introducing a bill in the national parliament that stipulates reserving a third or 33 per cent of seats in national and legislative assemblies across the country for women.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the passing of the bill by the upper house of the parliament by 186-1 as an "historic step forward towards emancipation of Indian womanhood". Of course, the bill was passed amid stiff opposition from some regional political parties, who wanted a sub-quota for women belonging to the socially backward class and minorities.

Although electoral reservation for women is not new in India as there is already a specific quota for women in local bodies, the passing of the bill has a very symbolic meaning as it is seen as the culmination of the long journey for women empowerment.

Of course, women have played a significant role in shaping the destiny of India and the first name that comes to mind is of Indira Gandhi, the first woman prime minister, who ruled the country with such authority that an American magazine had called her the "only man in her cabinet". And now it is her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi as the chief of the Congress party, largest faction of the coalition government, is calling the shots.

It does not end here. India also today boasts of a woman president, Speaker of the lower house (Lok Sabha) of parliament is a woman and so is the leader of the opposition and notwithstanding, many women chief ministers and head of political parties.

However, despite these sparking examples, the ground reality is different. Women are still under-represented in the national parliament and state legislative assemblies.

There are only 21 women in the 233-member upper house, representing around nine per cent and 59 in the 545-member lower house, which is under 11 per cent.

This disparity or the conflicting picture reflects that women have a very long to way go as far as public life is concerned despite reservation of electoral quota for them.

Even the Indian prime minister acknowledges the fact that women in India face discrimination and hardships in every sphere of life and the bill will go a long way in removing those hurdles as it will force the political parties to field women candidates thereby giving more opportunities to women to take part in the public life and take charge of their destiny.

Many opponents of the bill argue it will be exploited by the political dynasties leaders' wives, sisters and daughters in grabbing the space left for women. The people who support the bill counter this argument by saying that this can happen even without women's quota and secondly not all women candidates will be kin of "professional politicians".

They say with time women will definitely be empowered as it will have its effect on patriarchy and change the gender dynamics. In fact, electoral women quota will force political parties to reinvent them and rope in more women.

Of course, the effect will not be seen immediately as it will take at least 10 to 15 years to bring in real change in the political landscape of India. The ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and other parties which supported the bill should be congratulated for literally pushing through the bill which had been gathering dust for the past 15 years. The bill was first introduced in the Indian parliament in 1996.

The bill has passed the first hurdle. Now the lower house of the parliament has to approve it before it goes to the president for her assent for it to become a law, which means India is set to join about 40 countries which reserves seats for women in parliament.