With the Parliament's special session starting Monday, September 18, the issue of women's representation in India's political landscape has once again taken centre stage. There is a renewed push for the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill, which aims to reserve a third of all seats for women in both the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.

What's the controversy?

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress have consistently supported the Women's Reservation Bill, opposition from other political parties and demands for sub-quota reservations for backward classes within the women's quota have remained major hurdles.

As the five-day Parliament session begins, several parties are advocating strongly for the Bill's revival, but the government maintains that an "appropriate decision will be taken at the appropriate time."

Other politicians such as Trinamool Congress' Shatrughan Sinha have pointed out that a special session was not needed for the Women's Reservation Bill to come to vote.

What is the Women's Reservation Bill?

The Women's Reservation Bill has faced a turbulent history, with similar Bills introduced in 1996, 1998, and 1999. In 2008, a significant attempt was made, resulting in the Bill's passage in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 before it lapsed due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

This Bill proposed reserving one-third of all seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for women and included a quota-within-quota for SCs, STs, and Anglo-Indians. Reserved seats were to rotate after each general election, ensuring that all constituencies would eventually be reserved.

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A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), chaired by Geeta Mukherjee, examined the 1996 Bill and made seven recommendations, five of which were included in the 2008 Bill. These recommendations included a 15-year reservation period and sub-reservation for Anglo-Indians.

However, two recommendations related to reserving seats in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils and sub-reservation for OBC women were not incorporated in the 2008 Bill. The Standing Committee on Law and Justice failed to reach a consensus, with some members suggesting alternatives such as allocating a percentage of tickets to women.

Why is the Bill hard to pass?

One of the major challenges in implementing the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha is the existing system of elections, which uses the single transferable vote method. This system allocates votes to preferred candidates, making it difficult to reserve seats for specific groups.

Currently, the Rajya Sabha does not have reservations for SCs and STs, and any attempt to introduce such reservations would require a constitutional amendment to change the voting system.

Current representation of women in India

Despite India's progress in various fields, women's political representation remains dismally low. Data reveals that women MPs constitute less than 15 percent of the Lok Sabha, and their representation is even below 10 percent in many state Assemblies.

Data from December 2022 reveals that several state Assemblies have less than 10 percent women representation, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, and Puducherry.

Meanwhile, states like Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi have 10-12 percent women MLAs.

Chattisgarh, West Bengal, and Jharkhand lead with 14.44 percent, 13.7 percent, and 12.35 percent women MLAs, respectively.

(With agency inputs.)

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)