Parliament Ka Zenana – Guest Post by M Balaji
Based upon the euphoric outpourings of the Indian media, all Indian women are supposedly thrilled about the Women’s Reservation Bill. It provides a historic opportunity to the women of India etc etc.
I am truly puzzled as to where the Delhi media has drawn these conclusions from. My female friends circle does not reflect these views and neither do the rural/poor women we have interacted with.
By way of background, I am of the female gender. I went to some of the elite educational institutions in India “not on quota†and have done pretty well in the corporate world. I used to take a bus to college and my parents had to take a loan to pay for my highly subsidized college and post graduate education. All in all, a middle class person and hence entitled to speak about this quota drama since it is supposed to help the non-elite, right!
For this write-up I’ll stick to just the female point of view of this “quota business” leaving aside other loopholes the depth of the Marina trench, such as rotation of seats which singlehandedly skewer our democracy like a shish kebab.
My basic issues with this latest UPA ki haath ki dein are below. Please note that these are not MECE but just my non euphoric outpouring on this travesty:
- Can the best person do the job please! – At a fundamental level, given the external and internal threats India is facing, we really need the best person to do the job in the Indian parliament. Obviously, we have a den of vipers in there but I certainly prefer a den of vipers to a den of sloths given the tight situation India is in from a strategic and security perspective. This is not the time to hand out lolly’s. The situation reminds one of decrepit courts of emperors and kings where all sorts of illogical gifts were being made while the country was threatened from all sides. India needs some serious surgery and repair and we are at risk of putting the scapula in the wrong hands.
- Is there a structural bias? – Quotas are typically given to nullify a structural bias and frankly the only communities that faced that till the recent past and even now are the scheduled castes (poverty and representation are not necessary metrics for measuring structural bias). In effect, the “quota” in this situation implies that the person is good but not getting an opportunity because of an endemic trait which is not a choice. As a woman, I can tell you that this is not the case for women and the number of representatives in parliament is no metric at all. With Sonia, Sushma, Brinda, Mayawati, Mamata, Jayalalitha, Meira and Pratibha, it is a joke that anyone is claiming a structural bias as a factor preventing women from being elected to Parliament. Practically every political party in India, of opposing views is represented by a woman or two. I will outline the reasons for this poor representation later.
- Welcome to the Zenana – The pool of women likely to participate in this 33% lolly is considerably smaller than the collective pool that would have participated otherwise. Instead of being half (because the men are out of the picture and yes it is not exact math because of various other factors) we are probably talking 1/10 (the correct metric would be to see how many women actually stand for elections vs. men and this ratio is likely to small and NO it is not because of discrimination, political parties want women quota or no quota). Given the smaller competitive pool, and the discretion the political party leaders have in placing people (due to the rotational clause), it is highly likely (99.9%) that these “women’s†seats will be used to spread family tentacles rather successfully e.g., Karunanidhi ‘s two wives and daughter Selvi. Additionally, these seats will be doled out as political and personal favors. People have rightly been calling this the bahu, beti, behen, biwi, bhanji bill. The parliament will have a zenana comprising of 33% of seats.
- Democracy gaee kaam se - The entire rotational systems vests a tremendous amount of power in the central bodies that take decisions around seats. The individual maharajas of their seats will no longer have that much power as they will have to start from scratch elsewhere. Add to this 33% lolly which will end up being a very discretionary allocation. As an illustration, if a few congress-wallahs squeak in protest when Sonia Gandhi shoves things down their throats, even that will end once this quota is implemented with Sonia Gandhi being the central all powerful force in Congress. I will not elucidate on the proposed rotation but needless to say, it will be a killer of any form of democracy in the dynastic party at least. 200-300 families will end up controlling both the upper and lower houses.
Now to the root causes of poor representation of women in Parliament:
Bare necessities, the simple bare necessities – Women of India are bereft of the bare necessities of life. As per census 2001, the literacy rate of women is 54.16 per cent and that of men is 65.38 per cent. I suspect when you view literacy across age bands, the age group of women most likely to compete in elections now probably has even lower literacy relative to males in their age group. This trend will probably shift in the next couple of generations. The female literacy rate for the 15-24 age band is 77% compared to male of 87% (UNICEF 2003-07).
The bigger problem is healthcare. While males will be scratching their heads to figure out connections between healthcare and participation, females will understand. Simply speaking if you spend all of your adult life grappling with female specific problems, childbirth and complications from childbirth, poor health of child, where is the time and energy to devote to any other pursuit? The burden of bring up a child falls mostly on the woman. Add to it the massive health issues and this is exacerbated tenfold. Indies maternal mortality rate is 450 to 100,000 vs. Chinas which is below 50 (UNICEF 2009). The key driver of this problem is poor healthcare infrastructure. Women simply do not have access to healthcare and contraceptives across lifecycle.
Others: There are several other factors such as domestic abuse and disproportionate workload that impede female progress in India. I will not go into detail because media focuses on these other factors more that the bigger issues.
How will a woman’s quota that only rewards a select few solve significant infrastructural and distribution issues in India? The above is an outcome of government apathy in the area of health and education infrastructure e.g., midday meal scheme which would go a long way in keeping girl student at school. The real women of India will get a chance when these issues are resolved. I don’t see Mayawati or Mamata addressing any of these issues despite being women. This requires will of government and clean investments.
Aaj ka Goonda Raj (Indian Parliament) – The world of politics and particularly the nexus between various shady factions and politicos makes the Indian Parliament and extremely woman unfriendly place. I will not even bring up the number of criminals in parliament. Only women who are equal criminals or protected by family networks can participate in this cesspool. Under the 33% lolly, only women who are goondas or part of the family-mafia nexus will be able to participate as well. Let us face it, women have a greater reluctance to wade into these kinds of dirty waters. And NO, women competing with women will not solve the problem. Women from the family-mafia nexus will bring with them the goons who will take care of any kind of free market. Again, the quota fails to address the core issue preventing women from playing in a big way.
In a Nutshell
Dear government wallahs, a few words of advice:
- Please STOP messing around with our democracy!
- Please STOP creating quota band aids to cover festering wounds created by your own inefficiency and corruption!
- Please STOP putting India at serious risk by wasting time on legislation that is not that important at this point of time
- Please STOP putting India at risk by putting wrong people in power because of quotas
***
Somewhat Related Posts:
“A plea for sanitation†– excerpts
Who Will Listen to Para’s Silent Screams?
Image courtesy: R V Moorthy, The Hindu
The ONLY REAL MINORITIES in this country are the people with neither rights nor reservations – people who contribute towards the growth of our economy and only want the genuine economic progress of the country in return rather than quotas, reservations, baises, favoritism and partiality!
By reservations we are taking the country backwards at an alarming pace! All these are political gimmicks and no woman actually benefits from these quotas since our great leaders would have already decided which wife, sister, daughter or relative would occupy seats of power!
And reservations mean that the person is not strong wnough to fight for his/her rights on his/her own! So where is the question of gender equality here? We are actually making a completely wrong statment by reserving seats for women that Indian women are weaker! I really don’t this is the case! How else did all the women in top positions in the corporate sector and politics reach there? It wasn’t through reservations for sure! … See More
Rather than enforcing laws and implementing a proper control system, our governent (actually governments – all of them) only seems to make excuses for not having the capability or the strength to enforce laws that control corruption, discrimination, violence, etc – they are just taking short cuts to the vote bank – give the people temporary happiness and destroys the country permanently on the long run.
And reservations, once made in our country are here to stay! No one can reduce their percentage – one can only increase them!
Aam aadmi yahaan pe bana ghulaam, lekin phir bhi hum boltein hain “Mera Bharat Mahaan”!
I totally agree with you! Its getting no where. One side we can merry that women get to raise voice on the flip side who would she be?
As a matter of fact… Putting the best guy in the seat is more important than any reservation
I am deadly against reservations of any kind. But here I differ with the author. I beleive even though this reservation is mostly going to help bring families and people with goonda support, still, the opportunity for more women to participate in the process is there. It was during a woman’s regime that we destroyed terrorism, and gave pakistan the best drubbing ever. Compare that to the spineless attitude we have now. Well it was the same woman who also brought the emergency. Now we have only spineless politicians in our country, who are still only yes-men. In this context why not give a chance to see what the woman can do!
Having wider representation to women will bring opportunities for more wider and varied thought process. When all corporations are opening to fact that they are missing out on the varied skills of women which the men lack and hence can add to the growth of the organization, the parliament is no different. The inherent thought processes and qualities of women would make some difference if not a whole lot. But in this country, I would take any change good or bad, cos what we need is desperately some change in thinking.
Instead of solving core issues these people are celebrating for nothing…yes this is going to be bahu, beti, behen, biwi, bhanji bill. We had reservation for last 50 years..did it solve any problems…instead of learning lessons from that we are repeating same mistake again…as author says right person should get chance to do the right job and please stop messing our DEMOCRACY
@Vidhya
I understand your sentiment but unfortunately, everyone asking for quota starts off with the same point of view – I am against quota but in this case…. All the different so called OBC castes (including the caste that ruled TN for 300 years), different religious groups etc.
We can’t agree with one type of quota and disagree with the others.
One Indira Gandhi does not mean, women are better than men. I can name a lot of women who have run the country to the ground.
Only a true meritocracy will throw up the best people for the country.
Likewise, if a woman goes to interview with a corporation and she has similar skills/edu to a man, I can assure you that she will get selected. Being in the corporate world I know how much corporations want women and are doing what they can. Trust me, the glass ceiling is much easier to break in India than other countries.
Solving the root causes preventing women from participating will throw up the best women who will be able to deliver.
The rationale for the reservation system was that some sections of the population were denied access to education and government jobs and giving them these opportunities will enable them to educate and enrich themselves so that future generations of these sectios will not have to rely on reservations. This idea therefore needs categories which one can move out of sometime in the future. For example, if I am unemployed and get welfare benefits, once I get a job, I am no longer unemployed and therefore the unemployment welfare benefits stop.
However, caste and gender and religion are categories which one rarely moves out of. These therefore become permanent categories of reservation. Thus a policy for upliftment, has instead become a policy of political dispensation, with favors granted at the whim of our rulers.
It’s a shame that there is some much state sponsored discrimination in India. What does it take to get rid of these barbaric laws?
MECE? Are you a McK alum?
I understand the objection. Do any of you who oppose this reservation, see any end to reservations in the near future? There is no posturing, it will fall in deaf years. All I am saying is, lets see what good can come out of it, and how we can work within it. Lets say there is reservation for women, and also some percentage for muslims, luckily atleast part of them will goto women, due to this overlap. Lets see if bringing women in the muslim community to the decision table change the male dominant attitude there!!
Its true, women do errors as do men. But a 33% guarantees that there is chance for more variety of approaches to problems, different perspectives etc. Whether criminal or goonda or part of a political family, it must be accepted that there are differences in thinking and problem solving between a male and a female. I am hoping such divergent views will force some change. One might ask what if the woman is subservient to the male boss, or husband who put her up. It can happen, but can happen other way around too! But perhaps a position of power can make the woman more assertive. All am saying is the representation from those who represent half of the demography is only going to help. Initially need not be the right people. But as we encourage educated men to enter politics why cant the right women do too. If it was such a balanced society and a level playing field why is it we have very few women in politics? How many husbands are supportive of wives being in a better position than them? As long as such gaps exists, reservation debate can never close. Additionally many MPS who opposed this bill gave frivolous reasons, just afraid of losing their seats. And please dont bring in corporation, still pay gap exists in many places.
Reservation need not solve much, and mostly priviledged get through, but sometimes it also helps. It must be analyzed with the purpose, and suggestions must be in terms of how best to implement such schemes that can help the ones who need some lift. But it must be agreed some do. Reservations might be flawed, but can we have some better ideas to get more women in the parliament without stating fight the battle in this unequal battle field?
@ Vidhya and @ M. Balaji,
There is merit in both your arguments. Dont forget this bill has been in the state of limbo for 14yrs. The bill was based on a study which was first done nearly 18yrs back!!!!
As for the issue per say, i am for havign more women in polity, but i am not sure if the proposed structure would really work.
If you look at Andhra pradesh assembly – which has the highest number of female politicians in the legislature, based on the proposed bill the number shoots up to more than 100%. Also the factor that needs to be considered is why is there a reeloving constituency system.
Final verdict, the bill needs to be discussed at lengths, rather than creating rucks for the discussion. In my view i would be sympathetic to the cause of bringing more women into politics. I would not agree with the author on “may the best person represent” – aurhor is being very naive here about the political system!!!
Dear All: Thanks for sharing your thoughts…will share my views hopefully later this weekend.
@Vidhya
To prevent communal electorates, we had the partition of India, over a million died and many more displaced..Now you endorse it
Enuff said
This article is about female empowerment in another culture, yet is poses an interesting question for this discussion–can an eternal victim ever be empowered?
http://bikyamasr.com/?p=7453
The problem with all reservation, quota systems is that there is no simultaneous evaluation process implemented to see if the measures worked and whether they can be removed since the group that needed the quota has progressed. That is why in most Indian States the politicians all come from the Backward Castes (OBC and MBC). It is interesting to note that since there is a far greater representation of these communities, no one suggests that the empowerement schemes have worked and we need to remove these groups from the reservations list.
When we consider the fact that communities like the Chettiars of the south and the Patels of Gujarat are both in the Backward community classification, both being traditional businessmen and fairly wealthy, one wonders at the rationale for a caste and gender based reservation system.
What those of us opposing this measure could possibly do is to approach the Supreme court to rule this further division of society of the basis of gender unconstitutional.
Thought provoking article. I cannot but help agreeing with the views of the author because I belong to the ‘fair’ sex and hence must be fair and honest indeed.
i am surprised at vidhya not realising that this govt. is now only under the thumb of a woman. She is correct in calling the men who are supposed to be governing ‘spineless’ and ‘yes men!’ And seeing the state in which this country is now, should we not become more alert and call our shots for people of values, irrespective of caste creed or gender, people who will truly work towards the upliftment of the downtrodden and not clandestinely frame policies to help the rich and the corrupt to become richer, and do away with any sort of division whatsoever.
Great! All I said is looking for more representation from the fairer sex and giving it a try isnt a bad thing! Now that has become me endorsing communal reservations, me endorsing the communal divide which caused the partition, etc etc.
1) First we cannot brush aside all reservations as one! If we did that would you argue giving some reservation to disabled is causing communal/societal divide or do away with it?
2) All are arguing as though we are on a fair playing ground, and it was so easy for women to come up in this male dominant society. And so seeing some merit in reservations, is causing more divisions in society?
3) Yes the current boss is a lady, and I dont trust her, but thats a weak argument to prevent other ladies from entering the parliament!
4) Its not like the reservation is never ending, it was decided it was for a 15 year period, perhaps might be reduced even lesser. Perhaps this gives incentives for any politician to do some good job, and not think of his/her constituency a free pass
5) There is no complete black white in anything! If we always paint everything with the same brush, women’s reservation, ohh pseudo secularism, division etc etc there is no way forward. All this cribbing has led us nowhere! Perhaps we can be more constructive, open and try to see positives where there is and work within the limitations set.
6) Finally I know the state of our political system, media etc etc, and the state our country and world is!! A few experiments arent going to make it worse. It is not like I endorsed Bin Laden’s into the parliament, only women. Even if a few Tasleema Nasreen’s enter in the name of reservation why not!! Atleast a few Bin Ladens will be out cos of this 30% reservation!
If you guys still want to parrot the same arguments pls go ahead, I dont want to bother replying to closed minds!
Great article by Seema Goswami on why these reservations are a bad idea
http://www.seemagoswami.blogspot.com/
No reservations
It will only create a political ghetto for women
If all goes according to plan, the Women’s Reservation Bill may well be passed by Parliament soon. And more’s the pity.
Yes, that’s right. Call me a contrarian but I don’t agree with the militant sisterhood on this one either. While I am all for increased female participation in the political process, and for more women in Parliament, I really don’t see how reservation is the best way to achieve these goals.
In fact, in my view, the Women Reservation Bill is probably the worst way ever.
Currently, Lok Sabha allows 552 members(max.). Why not add another 552 seats to it? Surely India can afford another 552.
By this way, the reservation thing can be avoided at the same time; ‘serving people of India’ would become an ‘equal opportunity’ career also.
Each and every constituency should have following candidates
RELIGIOUS CANDIDATES
1) Muslim Man and Muslim Woman
2) Christian Man and Christian Woman
3) Sikh Man and Sikh Woman
4) Buddh Man and Buddh Woman
5) Jain Man and Jain Woman
6) Jew Man and Jew Woman
NON RELIGIOUS CANDIDATES
7) Man and Woman not falling in above
CASTE CANDIDATES
8) Caste Man and Caste Woman
And some FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES
Pakistan Man and Woman; Bangladesh Man and Woman; China Man and Woman
All should be reserved. For example, if United States has a say then it should also send in a man and woman.
FP article supports the views mentioned by M Balaji..
More Nancy Pelosis Please: That’s because, in most cases worldwide, an influx of female legislators has led to few noticeable changes in policy.
@ Shantanu
You cant really compare US democracy to that of India. Where in India, we still struggle to give relative importance to women in certian sectors and certain places, when compared to US where there is equality (by and large)!!
My issue with the bill is around – why constituencies are changed for every term? Also why cant this be implemented effectively from bottom up. We can see lot of women at the grass root level, why not implement this at the state level? before moving up to parliament? If delt in such a process, the hope is everytually women would be part of main stream politics that one need not provide reservation!!
Else the history of local elections will repeat where, most women candidates (if not all) are proxies for their husband/family interests!!
Ban on all reservation in India come on dear friends India is now developing country wake up from 10th century we don’t need any kind of reservations in job & educational sectors this might create hell in our country.Again it’s politician game for ladies reservation why the hell ladies needs quota ?can’t they work hard to get it? If we all want our INDIA to develop fast then just say no to reservations in any sectors please.Now a days every lady is counted equally to that of man then why the hell their should be question of reservations for ladies. I see every ladies whoking in various organisations.come Indian ladies wake up and reject the dam thing reservation it’s all politics game understand it.
In modern India, people fought against reservation system of the occupation based on a CASTE system.
Now in the developing India, we will have to fight against this reservation of the representation based on the QUOTA system.
In developed India, we will have to fight against new reservation system of the intellectual representation based on the “OCCUPATIONAL division” to allow people from all occupations participating in politics.
And, this will keep going on and on as every system has a life cycle, and as we know India is always best in this type of “Systems” creation.
||namo Bhaartam, namO Sanskritam||
And we will keep on fighting (among ourselves) as we have nothing to do something constructive.
||namo Bhaartam, namO Sanskritam||
From Thank you very much Mr Sharad Joshi:
Here is what he (Sh Joshi) has to say :
…The position of my party can be very briefly summarised as follows: Political empowerment for women – a thumping yes, yes, yes. Reservation – a fairly big question mark.
And, Rotation and lottery system – an absolute No, No, No.
…
Now, the question is: Has the reservation, actually, ever given benefit to any of the targeted communities? And our experience is not very happy. This problem could have easily been solved by a system of proportional representation rather than the Party List system. That would take care of the entire set of problems connected with reservation.
…
Lastly, coming to the lottery-cum-rotation system, this is not a minor defect. I still insist that this is a fatal defect in the system. Here, we choose a constituency first, and it is very likely that for that constituency, there may not be an enthusiastic woman candidate. On the other hand, it is likely that a man has nursed that constituency for some time.
This will unnecessarily create bitterness against the women’s movement. Sir, secondly, it is also likely that this opportunity will be used by established leaders for pushing the candidature of their family members which is not the purpose of this Bill at all. Sir, once a woman is elected, she would know that she does not stand a chance of getting the ‘woman reserved constituency’ again. Therefore, she would not be equally enthusiastic about nursing the constituency. Similarly, the men candidates who get elected would also have doubts about their letting to contest that election once again from the constituency because the chances that it will be available to them would be only 50:50. Under these circumstances, Sir, the major effect will be that all the constituencies will be badly nursed.
And, lastly, Sir, this kind of a reservation system will make it impossible for any House to have more than 33 per cent repeaters at any time. So, we will lack the experienced people in the Legislatures and the Parliament. That could prove to be fatal for the Indian Democracy.