The Hindu : Women's Bill: disputes not insurmountable?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 16, 2003

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Women's Bill: disputes not insurmountable?

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI AUG. 15. It was on this day in 1999 that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, promised a women's reservation Bill in his address from the Red Fort. And four years later, today, he once again referred to it, commending the "dual-membership" proposal as a "practical" way out of a problem that has defied a political consensus.

Apparently, the "concerns'' of several parties, including the Congress and even the Samajwadi Party, revolve around five factors. If these are met, some senior leaders like the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Shivraj Patil, feel that the sharp differences that have persisted among different political parties could be narrowed enough to make it possible to pass a Bill to ensure increased representation for women in Parliament.

One, Opposition leaders have pointed out that the BJP's resolution on the subject adopted at its Raipur conclave last month — which the BJP is now recommending as a basis for a Bill — falls short of expectations in several respects. If 181 of the 543 elected seats in the Lok Sabha are declared to be dual-member constituencies (with one general seat and one reserved exclusively for a woman) to ensure at least 181 women MPs in the House, as suggested by the BJP resolution, it would ensure only 25 per cent representation for women. With the total strength going up to 726 MPs (543 plus 2 nominated plus 181 additional as a result of dual-member constituencies), the number of assured women MPs will only be 181.

To remedy this, the number of dual-member constituencies would have to be increased to 274 and one of the two nominated seats also reserved for a woman (increasing the total strength of the Lok Sabha to 825), thus ensuring at least 33 per cent representation for women.

The second flaw in the BJP proposal, as stated by several leaders, is that the suggestion for "rotation" of double-member seats will deprive women MPs of the opportunity of getting elected from the same constituencies. It will also be a disincentive against nurturing the constituency and creating a bond between the people and woman MP elected in that dual-member constituency.

This can also be remedied by ensuring that there will be no rotation of double-member seats. After all, several seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes have been reserved for several decades — some even since the first general election — and no one has objected to it.

Three, with the total strength of the House raised to 825, political leaders pointed out, the number of seats for SCs and STs must go up to meet the constitutional requirement of 22.5 per cent reservation for them. If the total strength is 825, these could be 186 of which 62 would be dual-member SC/ST seats to accommodate SC/ST women.

Four, apparently, the SP leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, one of the strong opponents of women's reservation, has privately spoken to other Opposition leaders, to say that he suspected a "political conspiracy" to "oust" strong Opposition leaders from their constituencies using women's reservation as a ploy.

To counter this, one party leader has suggested that the method of determining dual-member constituencies must be "very transparent" applying "objective criteria" like the physical size of the constituency and number of electorate, while keeping in mind that these should be evenly distributed among the States.

And finally, Mr. Patil said there were apprehensions that with 33 per cent of seats reserved for women and 22.5 per cent reserved for SC/STs, the number of general "open" seats should not fall below 50 per cent. It has been pointed out that if the Lok Sabha strength is increased to 825, this problem will also be overcome.

The total break-up would then be: 274 dual-member constituencies, including 62 dual-member reserved SC/ST seats and 212 general dual-member seats; 124 reserved SC/ST single-member seats; 427 general single-member constituencies; and one of two nominated members to be a woman.

Except for the size of the Lok Sabha, almost all other criteria would be met by this formula. The open single member constituencies would be more than 50 per cent of the total strength of the House.

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