Women in elected bodies, a lip service

The nomination of only male candidates for Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka this month has once again exposed the stark reality that political parties are only interested in paying lip service to the representation of women in higher echelons of the government. Ironically though, Karnataka was the first state in the country to implement the Panchayat Raj Act in 1987 mandating 25% quota for women, even before the concept of such reservations were introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government through the 73rd constitutional amendment. While women especially those from scheduled and backward communities play a significant role in local bodies of the state, it is an altogether different story in the legislature and Parliament. Women constitute only 2.6% of the 75-member state Legislative Council. By this month-end, the Upper House will be left with only two women members, as two others are set to retire. The government has a chance to take corrective steps, albeit in a small way, as five nominated seats are set to fall vacant soon. But even if all five seats go to women, which is most unlikely, it will not tip the balance in their favour. The situation is no better in the Legislative Assembly where women with eight members, constitute only 3.1% of the house.

Though the representation of women in Lok Sabha has gone up from 5% in the first general elections to 14% at present, it is still abysmally low considering that the female population of the country is 48.5% according to the 2011 census. One of the root causes for this is the lack of will by successive governments and political parties to implement the Women Reservation Bill which has been hanging fire for nearly 25 years now. First mooted by the Deve Gowda government in 1996, the Bill which provides for 33% reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, was finally passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010 when Manmohan Singh was prime minister, but never saw the light of the day as it could not been even be introduced in the Lok Sabha due to lack of consensus among political parties.

According to the United Nations, women’s political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. Besides, studies have shown that their greater representation in Parliament and assemblies contribute to stronger attention to women and child issues. Enough time has already elapsed and the Modi government should demonstrate its seriousness about women empowerment by using all the force in its command to get the Bill passed in both the Houses of Parliament without any further delay.