The Lok Sabha has never voted on the bill, which proposes one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lower House and state assemblies.
New Delhi: Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, Congress president Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday to “rise above party politics” and ensure the passage of the women’s reservation bill in the Parliament.
Renewing the Congress’s efforts, Gandhi pledged unwavering support to the bill which was passed by the Rajya Sabha under the UPA government in 2010. Former party president Sonia Gandhi too wrote to PM Modi last year seeking passage of the bill.
Our PM says he’s a crusader for women’s empowerment? Time for him to rise above party politics, walk-his-talk & have the Women’s Reservation Bill passed by Parliament. The Congress offers him its unconditional support.
Attached is my letter to the PM. #MahilaAakrosh pic.twitter.com/IretXFFvvK
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 16, 2018
The bill proposes that one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies be reserved for women.
Introduced 22 years ago, the bill has never been voted on in the Lower House.
The bill’s importance
The bill, first introduced in 1996, follows after the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution which gave women 33.3% reservation in panchayats and municipalities.
According to the draft bill, 33.3% of the seats in Lok Sabha and all legislative assemblies should be reserved for women. The bill also proposes one-third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes be reserved for women of those groups in Lok Sabha and the assemblies. The reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.
The reservation would cease to exist 15 years after the bill had been passed.
Currently, there are 62 women out of a total of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha. In Rajya Sabha, 27 out of 240 MPs are women.
Critics argue that despite support from women across the political spectrum, the bill hasn’t been passed because men fear a threat to their political bastion.
The journey of the bill
On 12 September, 1996, H.D. Deve Gowda’s United Front government first introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha. However, it didn’t manage to make its way past the Lower House. It was sent to a joint parliamentary committee instead. The committee chaired by Geeta Mukherjee submitted its report in December 1996.
Scuffles and snatching of papers were a common sight in Parliament whenever the bill made its way to the floor of the House.
In 1997, Sharad Yadav, a senior Janata Dal leader, courted controversy. He infamously asked if “par-kati mahilaen” (short-haired women) will decide the future of “our women” (women from rural areas). Slogans like “take back the women’s reservation bill” were raised by members of the Samajwadi Party at the time.
In 2012, Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Samajwadi Party chief, said the bill would never benefit rural women. He further said the bill would only “provoke young women to whistle in Parliament”.
The Vajpayee government brought the bill to Lok Sabha in 1998. After it was reintroduced in the House, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Surendra Prasad Yadav snatched the bill from the Speaker and tore it to bits.
The bill still found its way to the table — once each in 1999 and 2002, and twice in 2003. Different parties — Congress, the Left, and BJP — pledged support to the bill. In 2003, BJP’s Vijay Malhotra even said, “We want the bill passed in this session itself, with or without consensus.”
Ahead of the general elections in 2004, the BJP used the bill as a rallying point. They blamed the Congress for stalling it and promised to pass the bill if they won with a decisive mandate.
After it came to power the same year, the Congress-led UPA said it would take the lead on the bill, but it disappeared among the stacks of papers.
However, the bill was revived again in 2008 and introduced in the Parliament, despite continued opposition on all fronts.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, and Personnel further recommended its passage in 2009. In its report, the committee held that there isn’t “adequate representation of women in the social, economic and political life of the country even after more than 60 years of independence.”
It also said, “Reserving seats for women in assemblies and Lok Sabha should not be left to the discretion of political parties, rather it should be guaranteed in the Constitution itself and enforced by all means.”
The bill was finally cleared by the union cabinet in February, 2010. The Rajya Sabha then passed it in March, 2010.
After the bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010, in a rare but historic candid moment — Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Karat – walked together while holding hands.
However, in 2014, the bill lapsed again with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
The way forward
Despite having a majority, the BJP hasn’t brought up the bill since coming to power due to a lack of ‘political consensus’.
As the political cycle repeats itself, the Congress has pledged unconditional support to it.
The bill now has to pass through the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, all over again. It will then have to be cleared by the President and passed in each state assembly before it comes into effect.
It remains to be seen whether the bill will reintroduced in the Parliament this session.
1. It is good to know that Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi has written to PM Shri Narendra Modi urging him to ensure that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2008 is passed in Monsoon session of Parliament. However, one question in connection of this bill is: would it be advisable to pass it despite opposition to it by leaders of many political parties? 2. It is a legislation which was proposed to be approved in 2008. If UPA govt. could not get the Bill passed during a pretty long period of six years (2008 to 2014), how does Shri Rahul Gandhi expect PM Shri Narendra Modi to do that during remaining term of NDA government of less than a year? 3. Hence a relevant question which citizens would like to ask is this: What prevented Shri Rahul Gandhi from making efforts during six years, when Shri Manmohan Singh was PM, to get the Bill passed?
Felt very happy to read that the TMC already has one third lady members in its contingent in the Lok Sabha. Didi is being kind to her sisters …