Reserved parliament seats for women: Will AL fulfill its electoral pledge?

India recently amended its constitution to reserve 33 per cent of seats in the parliament for women. The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on 20 September and at the Rajya Sabha on 21 September. Two Lok Sabha members took a stance against the bill, but the Rajya Sabha passed it unanimously. 

This amendment dictates that one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha, the Vidhan Sabhas (state assemblies), and the Vidhan Sabha of Delhi must be reserved for women, effectively preserving 181 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats for women.

Notably, almost half of India's 950 million registered voters are women, while the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have only 15 per cent female legislators and the Vidhan Sabhas have just 10 per cent. 

A bill for reserving one-third of seats for women was first placed before the parliament in India in 1996, and it was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. But it was withheld in the Lok Sabha. Regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said, “It is ours. Woh hamara bill hai [It is our bill].”    

A few months ago, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lost his Lok Sabha seat after taking a dig at prime minister Narendra Modi. However, the Supreme Court later reinstated him in August. The BJP and the Congress engaged in a fierce debate over the issue in the parliament as well as the political sphere. 

Under the leadership of Congress, a platform – India Alliance – has been formed to challenge the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Still, when the BJP placed the Women’s Reservation Bill before the parliament, neither the Congress nor other opposition parties opposed it; rather they endorsed the bill. 

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared a 2018 letter from Rahul Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the X platform. In the letter, Rahul wrote that the prime minister should rise above party politics and get the Women's Reservation Bill passed in the parliament. He also pledged unconditional support of Congress in this regard. 

This is what actual democracy is all about. The government and the opposition stand in opposition when necessary and offer support when needed. When it comes to Bangladesh, the government and the opposition find a common ground in no cases, be it domestic politics or foreign policy. 

BNP established the liberation war affairs ministry after assuming the state power in 2001, but the then-opposition – Awami League – did not welcome the initiative. When the maritime boundary dispute was settled under the Awami League government, the BNP initially thanked the prime minister but later withdrew it. 

Both these parties claim to be the proponents of parliamentary democracy, but always resorted to street protests to settle any issues. The government and the opposition had reached a consensus only in 1991, when the twelfth amendment of constitution was passed. It marked the transition from a presidential system to a parliamentary one. But, neither of the parties have considered the parliament as the focal point of its politics.

The section 12.2 of the 2008 election manifesto of Awami League mentioned that the number of seats reserved for women in the parliament will be increased to 33 per cent. Now, in 2023, they still could not take any bold step in this respect. 

BNP initially fixed the number of reserved seats for women at 45, and the Awami League raised the number to 50 later. Here, the BNP's approach for proportional election of female lawmakers was comparatively more democratic. Earlier, only the ruling party used to get the reserved women seats. 

Only 22 women out of 300 MPs were elected in direct voting in the parliamentary election. Another 50 women are in reserved seats. The grand total is a mere 20.7 per cent.

Different women's organisations including Mahila Parishad have been demanding for long to increase the number of female MPs to at least 33 per cent alongside their election to be through direct voting. Females were elected in direct voting in the provincial election to East Bengal in 1954. But they are being elected through indirect voting even in this 21st century. The women organisations have put forth several alternative proposals as well. One of them is to keep 100 parliamentary seats reserved for women by rotation. Only women will be the candidates there. Another alternative is, the political parties will give nominations to only women candidates in 100 constituencies.

Will the Awami League government fulfill its pledge made 15 years ago in this regard? If they do so, the people will feel that the government does not only speak about women empowerment, but also believe in it

The demands of women organisations are in keeping with the Representation of People Order (RPO). No political parties could fulfill the condition of ensuring 33 per cent participation of women in all spheres of public life by 2020 as has been said in the RPO amended in 2008. They speak about women empowerment but work just the opposite.

Section 2 of Article 28 of our Constitution said about equal rights of women and men in all the spheres of the state and public life. Half of the country’s population is women.  They were supposed to have equal participation in political parties and state organisations. But in reality, almost all the district and upazila level committees of all the political parties are heavily controlled by men. One party maintains goons to tackle the goons of another party. With rise in women’s participation in the political parties, this political hooliganism and violence will dissipate significantly.

Political leaders publicise aggressively about keeping one-third female members in local government. But the process of electing female representatives of the people has been made in such a way that even after being elected they are deprived of the empowerment.

We could follow the instance of Nepal in this regard. If the head of the elected organisation is a woman there, the deputy head is a man and vice versa. The lower house of Nepal’s parliament has 32.7 per cent female participation while the number is 37.9 per cent in the upper house. The female participation in India will also increase after the passage of the new law in this regard. The MPs of the Jatiya Sangsad have a certain constituency but the female MPs actually do not have anything like that. That is why clashes appear between the MPs from general seats and women MPs from reserved seats. Local administration, in general, follows what the male members say and does not take into account the women members.

The leader of the parliament has been a woman in our country for over three decades. The leader of the opposition is also a woman. A woman has been acting as the Speaker in the current and the immediate past parliament. Despite this, why are the seats for female MPs not increasing?

The last session of the 11th parliament will sit in October. Will the Awami League government fulfill its pledge made 15 years ago in this regard? If they do so, the people will feel that the government does not only speak about women empowerment, but also believe in it. And, if they do not do so, the people will think the government does not do what it says and does what it doesn’t say.

 

* The op-ed, originally published in the print edition of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza and Misbahul Haque

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