Women's Reservation Bill has been touted as the solution to India's inadequate female representation in the parliament and state assemblies. This bill has been introduced in parliament multiple times, most recently in 2008 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. But there has been no development ever since.
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as Parliament prescribes. As per the bill, One-third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies.
Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory, and reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this amendment.
Details of the 2008 proposal can be accessed here.
Alternate Proposal
Instead of granting the reservation as per the bill, there are less disruptive and more sustainable ways of achieving the same goal: more representation of women in the parliament and legislative assemblies:
- If a political party is contesting more than 5 seats in an election, at least 33% of the tickets should be given to a women candidate.
- This is preferable because it allows freedom to political parties to choose a women candidate that has the most chance to win instead of trying to find a women candidate in a reserved constituency.
- It also prevents the situation where a daughter/ spouse/mother/close relative of the current or previous male incumbents is given a ticket to circumvent the reservation requirement. It is likely that such proxy candidature would not lead to the development of organic women leaders.
- It also allows more freedom of choice to both voters and political parties.
- The mandate for at least 33% of tickets could be extended to seats reserved for SCs and STs
- The same principles as above apply.