Women Reservation Bill, 2023 – Full Details

On 21 September 2023, Indian legislators passed the first legislation considered in the country’s new Parliament building: the Women Reservation Bill, 2023. The bill, which passed both houses of Parliament almost unanimously—with just two votes against—will ensure that women occupy at least 33 percent of the seats in state legislative assemblies and the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament.

A brief comparison

At the time of the bill’s passage, about 14 percent of Lok Sabha legislators were women. While that represents India’s highest proportion since its independence, it was far below the global average of 26.5 percent, or the Central and Southern Asia average of 19 percent.

Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union show that the share of women in Parliament in India is around 15%. India ranks 141 out of 193 countries on this count. Even Pakistan, South Africa, and Kenya have a higher share of women representatives.

According to recent UN Women data, Rwanda (61%), Cuba (53%), and Nicaragua (52%) are the top three countries in women representation. Bangladesh (21%) and Pakistan (20%) as well are ahead of India in the case of female representation.

Women’s Reservation Bill: History

It was former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who in May 1989 first planted the seed of women reservation in elected bodies by introducing the Constitution Amendment Bill to provide one-third reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies. The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha but failed to get passed in Rajya Sabha in September 1989.

In 1992 and 1993, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao reintroduced the Constitution Amendment Bills 72 and 73, which reserved one-third (33%) of all seats and chairperson posts for women in rural and urban local bodies. The Bills were passed by both houses and became the law of the nation. Now there are nearly 15 lakh elected women representatives in panchayats and nagarpalikas across the country.

September 12, 1996, the Deve Gowda-led United Front government for the first time introduced the 81st Constitution Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha for the reservation of women in the Parliament. After the Bill failed to get approval in Lok Sabha, it was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee chaired by Geeta Mukherjee. The Mukherjee Committee presented its report in December 1996. However, the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. 

Two years later, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government pushed the WRB Bill in the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998. However, this time too, the Bill failed to get support and lapsed again. It was subsequently reintroduced in 1999, 2002, and 2003 under the Vajpayee government, but with no success.

Five years later, the WRB bill again gained some traction during Manmohan Singh-led UPA government-1. In 2004, the government included it in its Common Minimum Programme and finally tabled it on 6 May 2008, this time in Rajya Sabha to prevent it from lapsing again. Five of the seven recommendations made by the 1996 Geeta Mukherjee Committee were included in this version of the Bill. The legislation was sent to the standing committee on May 9, 2008. The standing committee presented its report on December 17, 2009. It got the stamp of approval from the Union Cabinet in February 2010. The Bill was eventually passed in the Rajya Sabha with 186-1 votes on March 9, 2010.

However, the Bill was never taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha and eventually lapsed in 2014 with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. Bills introduced/ passed in Rajya Sabha do not lapse, hence the Women Reservation Bill is still very much active. 

Narishakti Vandan Bill/Woman Reservation Bill, to provide 33 percent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

The women’s reservation bill seeks to reserve one-third (33%) of the total number of seats in state legislative Assemblies and Parliament for women. The bill also proposes sub-reservation for SCs, STs, and Anglo-Indians within the 33% quota

Delimitation : What is coming up in 2029…

According to the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023, or the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, reservation of one-third of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken based on figures from the first Census that is conducted after the Act is enacted i.e, 2029. 

Delimitation means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country to represent population changes. The last delimitation exercise took place in 1976 and the current boundaries of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies were drawn based on the 2001 Census. The number of seats has remained frozen based on the 1971 Census. Through a Constitutional amendment in 2002, a freeze was placed on delimitation, until the first Census is conducted after the year 2026. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Women’s Reservation Bill will be implemented only after 2029.

The bill provided for inserting Article 330A into the constitution, which borrows from the provisions of Article 330, which provides for reservation of seats to SCs/STs in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill provided that reserved seats for women may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in states or Union Territories.

In the seats reserved for SCs/STs, the Bill sought to provide one-third of the seats to be reserved for women on a rotational basis

The reservation will be provided for a period of 15 years. However, it shall continue till such date as determined by a law made by Parliament.

Arguments against Reservation for Women in Parliament

Some people vehemently oppose the women’s reservation bill. Their arguments are mentioned below.

• The current Bill does not provide women’s reservation in the Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Councils (i.e. upper house). The Rajya Sabha currently has a lower representation of women than the Lok Sabha. Representation is an ideal that must be reflected in both the Lower and Upper Houses.

• Providing reservations to women runs counter to the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution.
• Women do not form a homogenous group like the caste groups, so women’s reservation is not akin to caste-based reservations and the same argument cannot be made for both. Like we have different lifestyles, problems, and visions based on family
• Some also argue that the reservation of seats in Parliament would restrict the choice of voters to women candidates.

Purpose of reservation

• One thing that people don’t understand is the difference between equity and equality

If a group is not represented proportionately in the political system, its ability to influence policy-making is limited.

A 2003 study about the effect of reservation on women in panchayats showed that women elected under the reservation policy invest more in the public goods closely linked to women’s concerns. The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice (2009) noted that the reservation of seats for women in local bodies has enabled them to make meaningful contributions.

All women work, but not all of them get paid.

The analysis has used the data from a National Statistical Survey report for January-December 2019. The data is based on domestic and caregiving services provided by ladies in their families. The average working hours of women stands at 7.2 hours/day. 

The SBI research has assumed a monthly income of ₹5,000 for rural women and ₹8,000 for urban women, which means they have taken it as the wage that every woman would have received had they worked for 8 hours in a day. There is also an additional assumption that 5% of these women in rural and 30% in urban areas are also working for wages in the formal set-up. In its analysis, the report has indicated that “the total contribution of unpaid women to the economy is around ₹22.7 lakh crore (rural: ₹14.7 lakh crore and urban: ₹8.0 lakh crore) which is almost 7.5 percent of India’s GDP.”

India’s first national Time Use Survey released in 2020 by the National Statistical Office, finds that 81.2% of all women are engaged in unpaid domestic services, compared with 26.1% of men. It finds that men spend 42 hours weekly on average on activities within the production boundary, i.e. what is traditionally counted as economic activity, whereas women spend 24 hours. However, women spend 10 times more time on household maintenance and care for children, the sick, and the elderly — 34.6 hours versus 3.6 hours.

There are two implications for this: working women face the dreaded “double burden”, where working outside the home and contributing to family income does not come with a commensurate reduction in household responsibilities, and the care work that they do spend time on is not counted in the larger economic estimates, leaving us with exhausted women with lower leisure hours in a week than their male counterparts.

Women’s unpaid work plays a vital role in the economy: it is responsible for 7.5% of GDP, according to an SBI report. In other words, not only do women shoulder the burden of domestic work, but they also boost the GDP in the process.

 Yet in the official logs, they are not working.

WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT!

My own personal view is that empowerment should be measured through levels of ‘choice’ – the more choice women have in their personal, health, economic, spiritual and political lives, the more empowered they are.

Basic respect and equality

The first and very important need of a woman is in-house respect which is missing in our misogynistic society (not to confuse it with love).Women want to be trusted, in the home, and otherwise too. The fact that she is being trusted not only enhances her confidence, but insulates her from any vulnerable situation outside.

Equal treatment at work place, where the principle of equity and equality is most applicable.

The biological cycle and career cycle of a woman goes hand in hand. And this is where woman are differentiated instead of giving support. This is one of the major reason of females leaving or taking long leaves during the peak of their career.

Safety and Security

Women have a natural instinct to protect themselves and their loved ones, so they often seek out environments and relationships where they feel safe and secure.Women want to feel safe and secure in all aspects of their lives, including physical, emotional, and financial security. 

 Women have a natural instinct to protect themselves and their loved ones, so they often seek out environments and relationships where they feel safe and secure.Women want to feel safe and secure in all aspects of their lives, including physical, emotional, and financial security. They want to be able to trust their partners and feel confident that they can provide for themselves and their families.

A space of their own

Their own space, which is not in a capacity of any relationship, but as a woman. Our homes by default do not have any space only for a woman (not to be confused with physical space).A space in which she is herself, just a woman, and nothing else. A space in which she can fly, a space where she can be ageless, faceless, a space where she can be wrong too, a space where she can just be herself. Why it is necessary for her to always be in one or the other role?

Decision making power/ right to choose

This should fly in the face of our male dominated society. From childhood women are trained, developed, and brought up with a caution of, “Ok I’ll check with my father, brother or husband.”

They should be given the right to choose what they want. Very small decisions in the family are also taken by men, like what should be cooked in kitchen, what should be gifted to a guest, to bigger ones like what should be the name of the child, which school should they be going to?

Equal opportunities

Further we want equal opportunities both in personal life and at the workplace, with same wages as of men for the same work. Show business is a perfect example of this imbalance. It is highly disheartening that we are still struggling to get what we deserve for, rightfully.

Honestly I’m not very optimistic about any miraculous change in the mindset of our misogynistic society, however it is important to let society know that we have started to understand what we want, and voicing it. The 1st step towards resolution is taken care of with this,…and rest will hopefully fall in place definitely, sooner or later.

Yours sincerely

A Woman