Why should seats be researved for woman in parliament and state legislative?
Answers
The term and modern concept of ‘social justice’ was coined by the Jesuit Luigi Taparelli in 1840, based on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and given further exposure in 1848 by Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. The idea was elaborated by the moral theologian John A. Ryan, who initiated the concept of a living wage. Father Coughlin also used the term in his publications in the 1930s and the 1940s.
The Bill giving 33% reservation to women will empower not only women but change the social structure of India in many ways. This Bill is unprecedented and is softly a revolution in the making. We must welcome this as an Act.
Despite long years of democratic politics, women remain largely outside the national public space. Their presence here is largely token and ‘happens’ despite the natural barriers that facilitate men while debarring women. This is because consciously and subconsciously women’s roles continue to be assigned to the private sphere, as men are given public roles.
Thus despite being increasingly part of the workforce, women are still seen as extensions of the household, in charge of childcare, nurturing and caring. The argument that women are ‘apolitical’ and not suited to the devious game of politics, stands refuted by women’s leadership in the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India where women’s reservation has been practised for over two decades. Here women have changed the name of the game.
Studies have shown that women in these far flung rural areas advocated collective and grassroots solutions to local problems. They have been sensitive to the excluded, having been excluded themselves for so long. The choices they have made, help the community as a whole rather than just the dominant male elite.
It has been established that when you give women rights, it helps not just women but the family and the community, as women, being engaged in family and community negotiations, think in a more collective manner. Even if they don’t, society will question them.
Women who have got their rights after long struggles will empathise with other struggles. Women in Parliament will be mentors to those outside and will lend courage and inspiration to others— both men and women in society. This is the only way to challenge entrenched patriarchal social structures.