Women's Bill to get a push

The Bill proposes 33 per cent reservation for the fairer gender in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, which will be on a rotational basis and will be operational for 15 years.

The Bill also provides for one-third quota for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Also, one seat out of the two reserved for Anglo-Indians in all Lower Houses will be reserved for women. The Union Cabinet cleared  the Bill on February 25. “We will introduce the Bill on March 8 in the Rajya Sabha. It will be a gift by the UPA government to all women. We are hopeful that it will be passed by both Houses of Parliament,” Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told Deccan Herald . Two-thirds of the members of both Houses of Parliament must vote in favour of it since a constitutional amendment is required for the Bill to be enacted into law.

All of the UPA’s constituents, the BJP as well as the Left parties have supported the Bill. But likely opposition to the proposed legislation is expected to come from the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal(United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Despite this, the government will find it easy to pass the Bill in the Lok Sabha but may face fissures in the Rajya Sabha as the ruling UPA does not have a majority in the Upper House. The UPA needs 158 votes to get the Bill through in the Rajya Sabha but the combined strength of the Congress, the BJP and Left parties add up to only 137.

The Bill was first introduced on September 12, 1996, when H D Deve Gowda was prime minister. It encountered fierce opposition, lapsed several times as there was no unanimity among the parties. Subsequently, it was introduced in 1998, 1999 and in 2008 (in the Rajya Sabha so that it would not lapse).

Principal opposition to the Bill came mainly from Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav, who are demanding quota within quota for backward classes.

In 1999, the Opposition snatched the Bill papers from then law minister Ram Jethmalani when he sought to introduce it in the Lok Sabha. Later, when H R Bhardwaj introduced it in 2008, he was “guarded” by ministers V Narayanaswamy and Renuka Chowdhary.

The draft Bill is based on a report of the standing panel on law and justice. The panel was not in favour of a quota within quota and was opposed to the proposal that the decision on quota should be left to political parties and that there should be double-member constituencies. It, however, was in favour of women’s quota being extended to the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils.