Why not implement quota immediately?

With the Lok Sabha passing the women’s reservation bill and the Rajya Sabha expected to pass it on Thursday, the path has been paved for better representation of women in the central and state legislatures, though that destination lies far in the future.

The bill, in its various forms, had been introduced many times in parliament but a lack of commitment among parties led to failure in the past. The BJP, which promised the bill in its 2014 and 2019 election manifestos, has now decided to fulfil the promise. The responses of various parties have shown that there is wide support for the bill.

Indeed, all parties have laid claim to ownership of the bill, including the Congress which had got a previous version of it passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. Parties have also claimed that their own leaders had always led from the front the campaign for the bill. During the debate, the demand for an OBC quota was made strongly, with the Congress leading the demand.

The bill proposes reservation of 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, including one-third of that 33% of seats set apart for SC and ST women. It mandates reservation only for 15 years, but parliament can extend it further. Rotation of reserved seats will be done after each subsequent delimitation exercise. Most importantly, it comes with a key condition that the seats will be reserved only after the completion of the delimitation exercise based on the first census conducted after the passage of the bill.

While the bill is welcome, it raises some questions. One is, why the government waited so long and brought the bill, convening a special session, just when the Lok Sabha elections are in sight. That has raised the doubt that it has been done with an eye on electoral gains, though that does not detract from its importance.

A more serious question is about its implementation. At present, the bill actually amounts to only an acceptance in principle of the idea of women’s reservation. It will be implemented only after the delimitation of constituencies is effected after the next census.

The next census is uncertain, and the delimitation is likely to be controversial. So, it is not going to be implemented for the next many years, and there is a view that it could be as late as 2039.

That would mean that the bill as it stands now is an undated cheque, embargoed for an uncertain period. The present legislative scheme can even undergo changes in those years. A provision for immediate implementation would have underscored the government’s and political parties’ commitment to the idea better.