Should women have reserved seats in parliament essay
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A Democratic republic based on equality and liberty should ideally have no reason to have reservation for an segment of society in Parliament or elsewhere. However, we do not live in an ideal situation Reservation is usually defended on the basis of the need to offer compensatory justice to rectify indefensible discrimination against certain sections of society, and the need to ensure equality through state intervention in support of the ‘deprived’ and the underprivileged. If we go by this justification for reservation, we see that women are indeed a discriminated lot as far as their representation in parliament is considered. The highest percentage of women through the Lok Sabhas so far hovers around 8 per cent of the seats. In Rajya Sabha it reached 11 per cent or so once. And , in population terms, women form almost 50 per cent of the total number of people in India. In number terms. At least, the inequity of representation is more than obvious. Such imbalances need to be corrected, and women need to participate more actively in the political process. So why have more women not entered our legislatures?
In the existing patriarchal male dominated socio political system that prevails in India, women are not likely to get the opportunity to enter the political mainstream and be empowered. On e had high hopes that discrimination against women would end once India got independence and progressive laws were made. Women have certainly made great strides in the economi8c world with several holding lucrative and important jobs. But nothing much has changed within Parliament. Gender bias in political circles is very strong, and most parties are reluctant to give tickets to women for contesting elections. As a result most women are left out of the political process at the very stage of selection of candidates. It is this reluctance that makes one feel that reservation of seats for women alone will help indeed, force parties to give seats for women and seriously campaign for their victory, so that they coe to power.
Those who favour reservations also argue that only the presence of a substantial number of women in decision-making bodies would help in eliminating the centuries-old gender-based discrimination in socio-economic and political field. It is because of the invisibility of women at the decision-making level for a long time that the concerns of women and their specific needs have not been adequately articulated, leave alone addressed. In 1990 the UN Commission on the Status of Women recommended a critical 30 per cent participation threshold to be regarded as the minimum for decision-making positions at the national level, and they are often forced to make compromises India, despite having a growing number of women in well paid jobs, still ranks low in the gender-related development index as calculated by the UNDP Human Development Reports .Nor does it do too well in ender-empowerment measures Progressive lows have no doubt been made aimed at empowering women in emplacements, health education and so on, but their implementation has been tardy. This suggests the absence of some vital catalyst and this catalyst could well be a more equal political space for women in Parliament. Reservation for women could well crate a new class of politically aware women who would demand their rights with the force of conviction.
Most women do feel that empowerment through natural evolution of society as a whole, through the effects of education and family welfare measures is to be preferred, but for that to happen within a reasonable time frame the right kind of foundations needed to be laid long ago. Most women also prefer getting better representation without reservation. Since, however ,that has not transpired, and since everything cannot be left to time alone, reservation has become a necessity. And practically every political party solemnly affirms that this is so. Not one is opposed to the policy openly. But , and this is what is somewhat disturbing, no political party is firmly acting on this ‘consensus’.
In the existing patriarchal male dominated socio political system that prevails in India, women are not likely to get the opportunity to enter the political mainstream and be empowered. On e had high hopes that discrimination against women would end once India got independence and progressive laws were made. Women have certainly made great strides in the economi8c world with several holding lucrative and important jobs. But nothing much has changed within Parliament. Gender bias in political circles is very strong, and most parties are reluctant to give tickets to women for contesting elections. As a result most women are left out of the political process at the very stage of selection of candidates. It is this reluctance that makes one feel that reservation of seats for women alone will help indeed, force parties to give seats for women and seriously campaign for their victory, so that they coe to power.
Those who favour reservations also argue that only the presence of a substantial number of women in decision-making bodies would help in eliminating the centuries-old gender-based discrimination in socio-economic and political field. It is because of the invisibility of women at the decision-making level for a long time that the concerns of women and their specific needs have not been adequately articulated, leave alone addressed. In 1990 the UN Commission on the Status of Women recommended a critical 30 per cent participation threshold to be regarded as the minimum for decision-making positions at the national level, and they are often forced to make compromises India, despite having a growing number of women in well paid jobs, still ranks low in the gender-related development index as calculated by the UNDP Human Development Reports .Nor does it do too well in ender-empowerment measures Progressive lows have no doubt been made aimed at empowering women in emplacements, health education and so on, but their implementation has been tardy. This suggests the absence of some vital catalyst and this catalyst could well be a more equal political space for women in Parliament. Reservation for women could well crate a new class of politically aware women who would demand their rights with the force of conviction.
Most women do feel that empowerment through natural evolution of society as a whole, through the effects of education and family welfare measures is to be preferred, but for that to happen within a reasonable time frame the right kind of foundations needed to be laid long ago. Most women also prefer getting better representation without reservation. Since, however ,that has not transpired, and since everything cannot be left to time alone, reservation has become a necessity. And practically every political party solemnly affirms that this is so. Not one is opposed to the policy openly. But , and this is what is somewhat disturbing, no political party is firmly acting on this ‘consensus’.
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