The controversial yet historic Women's Reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state legislative bodies, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after two days of high drama that saw suspension of seven members who violently disrupted proceedings.
The Bill, pushed by the government despite the threat of withdrawal of support by Samajwadi Party and RJD, was passed by a two-third majority, a day after it was moved in the House for consideration but could not be taken up because of unruly scenes.
Of the votes polled, 186 were in favour of the bill and only one was against.
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill could get through with "unequivocal" support from the BJP and the Left in the Upper House where the ruling UPA coalition is in minority. The 245-member House has an effective strength of 233.
UPA ally Trinamool Congress, with two members in the Upper House, did not participate in the voting.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley described the measure as "momentous and historic".
BSP, having 12 members, walked out of the House saying the bill did not contain amendments suggested by it.
Lok Sabha also witnessed unruly scenes created by SP, RJD and JD(U) who forced four adjournments.
14 years after the first attempt was made inthe Lok Sabha and repeated failures subsequently, the Constitution amendment bill was adopted in the mandatory division with 186 members voting for it and one voting against.
In the 245-member House with an effective strength of 233, the bill required the backing of at least 155 members and the UPA had the clear support of 165 in the run up to the event.
The bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies.
Ruling UPA constituent Trinamool Congress,which has two members, kept away from voting, while 15-member BSP, which has opposed the bill in its present form, walked out before voting.
JD(U), whose present Sharad Yadav is a staunch opponent of the Bill, appears to have backed the Bill fully with most of its 7 members voting for it in response to the call by one of its senior leaders and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
After frenzied opposition and repeated disruptions, the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday evening finally debated the historic women's reservation bill in the run up to a vote on the legislation.
Amongst those who spoke were Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Arun Jaitley, CommunistParty of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) Brinda Karat,Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Satish Mishra and Jayanthi Natarajan of Congress.
Opening the debate was Jaitley, who said his party "unequivocally" supported the women's bill but added that the privilege ofsupporting it had been diluted by "some of the most shameful incidents in India's parliamentary history".
The leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, who spoke after the constitution amendment bill was put to vote by Chairman Hamid Ansari, said he had a feeling of being a party to history in the making when he came to the house.
Karat, a vocal supporter of the bill, said women's reservation in parliament and state legislatures would change the "cultureof the country because women today are still caught in a culture prison. In the name of tradition, stereotypes are imposed and we have to fight these every day".
These stereotypes will also be broken by thebill, said Karat, who believes the entry of a larger number of women in legislatures would make for "more sensitive politics".
"The women's reservation bill will ensure that women of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, poor women and Muslim women would benefit from it," Karat said, addressing concerns that the bill would benefit only some sections.
Congress leader and spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan also refuted critics demanding a special quota for Dalit women, saying Dalitsand tribals would continue to get reservation under the bill.
A triumphant Natarajan said no other party"had the courage to deliver the promise (of reservation for women) to the people of India". She said Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singhhad not lagged behind in supporting measures for women's empowerment.
However, Bahujan Samaj Party's Satish Mishra said his party would not be able to support the proposed legislation in the current form. He wanted the prime ministerto reserve 50 percent of all seats in legislatures for women in line with their population ratio.
Shivanand Tiwari of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) created a minor stir in the house by speaking in favour of the bill, which has been opposed vocally by a section of his colleagues led by party president Sharad Yadav.
The AIADMK's V. Maitreyan pointed out that the bill was a great tribute to the Indian housewife who he said had proved to be better financial managers of the household"than all the finance ministers of India".
The Women
*.More women participation in politics and society.
*.Social norms in India strongly favour men, therefore, reservation for women is expected to create equal opportunity for men and women.
*.Due to female foeticide .infantacide and issues related to women's health, sex ratio in India is alarming at 1.06 males per female . It is expected this will change the society to give equal status to women.
*.Women are supposedly more resistant to corruption. Therefore, this bill might prove to be a factor restraining the growth of corruption.
*.Women will get 33% reservation after this bill is passed and condition of women will improve.
Possible drawbacks
Passing the Women Reservation Bill may cause bias in the democratic process because of the following reasons:
*.It may hurt the self respect of women who have come up on their own ability, it may result in lesser respect for women in the society. It may also bring down the quality of leaders.
*.Parties will be forced to find women whether or not the women identify with the overall party agenda and the rest of the issues concerning all citizens, as opposed tojust women issues. There are no provisions to prevent discrimination against men because of finding women whoare inclined towards women issues alone, or, in other words, biased against men.
*.Powerful male members of parties will be tempted to find female relatives to reserve the seat for themselves during the following cycle.
*.It is feared that reservation would only help women of the elitist groups to gain seats, therefore causing further discrimination and under-representation to the poor and backward classes (According to a National Election Study, 68 per cent of today's women MPs are millionairesses).
