Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) gestures during a Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) gathering of women to address the recently passed Women's Reservation Bill, in Ahmedabad on Sept. 26.SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images
India’s legislature has passed a key bill that would guarantee seats at the national and state levels of government be reserved for women, but despite the move being hailed by women’s rights groups, some critics question the motives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Women’s Reservation Bill would require 33 per cent of seats in state legislative assemblies and the lower house of Parliament – where female representation stands at just 14 per cent – go to women. The idea was first debated more than 27 years ago, and several attempts to have earlier versions of the legislation approved were unsuccessful. All it needs now is for the country’s president to sign it into law.
“For women, it is nothing short of an opportunity,” said Kanksshi Agarwal, founder of the NETRI Foundation, an incubator for women in politics. “... Once the bill is implemented, we will more than double the representation of women in Parliament. This will be a systemic change. Now, telling women you can be a politician is not such an unrealistic dream.”
Mr. Modi described the bill as a “historic moment” for India.
His critics, however, say it is also a political ploy to woo more female voters to the Prime Minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party. They point to the timing of the bill’s passing at a special parliamentary session chaired by Mr. Modi about six months before the next general election.
“It is a political plank,” Ms. Agarwal said. “It is a counter to the violence that has been happening in the country, especially in Manipur. There are reports that violence against women has gone up. Their labour force participation has come down. On the other hand, women’s participation in voting has gone up. A lot of elections are being determined by women who vote. This move consolidates BJP’s women voters.”
Critics also have concerns over how long it will take for the law to roll out.
The Women’s Reservation Bill will only be operational from 2029. That six-year delay is because of clauses stating that a census and process of delimitation – an exercise to revise the number of seats and redraw constituencies for the lower house depending on the new population data – must first take place. The next national census is due to commence in 2024.
Opposition parties say the delay is an injustice to women and are demanding that the bill go into effect immediately.
“If indeed the government meant to make it into law, they would have implemented it right away,” said Ritu Jaiswal, state president of the women’s wing of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party in Bihar.
The messaging likely to go out from the BJP, even across rural villages, is that Mr. Modi has brought about a major change, said psephologist and political analyst Sanjay Kumar, from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi.
“He has done it with several other schemes for women. This would be one more step in the direction to make him more popular among women.”
But it is important for voters to realize that reservation of seats “doesn’t automatically mean equality,” said Nirmala Bharti, a politician based in rural Madhya Pradesh. If the bill is to not just benefit privileged women, she explained, political parties will have to make the effort to financially support and back candidates from lower socioeconomic classes to ensure better representation.
Similarly, people should temper their expectations as to how much change having more female representatives will bring about politically, Mr. Kumar said.
“It will ensure that women will be adequately represented in Indian legislative bodies at state and national levels, bringing it in symmetry with reservations already in place at the local body level. But I don’t think it will improve the quality and nature of legislation to a large extent because we are a party-based democracy,” he said. “Parties tend to follow a system of whip while voting on contentious issues to maintain a united party stand.”
Still, regardless of any concerns and the six-year wait, political observers say the Women’s Reservation Bill is a step in the right direction for the country.
“It has become socially desirable to not be seen as opposing something being done for women. We are in the era of gender justice – at home, at the workplace and it is now getting reflected in Parliament,” Mr. Kumar said.
Ms. Agarwal is optimistic for the next few years. “We can start training more women to make inroads into politics. Parties can start preparing their women’s cadres as they will now have the mandate and obligation to fund promising women leaders to fight elections.”
She is hopeful that women from diverse backgrounds will have a fair chance to make it to Parliament, and expects more robust discussions and legislations concerning issues such as women’s education, health, livelihoods, protection against violence, access to contraception and bodily autonomy. “There could be better budget allocation for women’s causes as well,” she added.
The bill will no doubt lead to some positive changes, Mr. Kumar acknowledges. “We often talk about musclemen – people with tainted backgrounds being elected. As soon as we have a sizeable number of women in Parliament, it will improve the quality of candidates. It will make Indian politics slightly cleaner.”