BENGALURU: In a historic event, the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023, which proposes to reserve 33 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women was recently cleared in the Lok Sabha. While it comes as a welcome move for many, others are sceptical about its implementation
I am part of a women’s collective, Shakti, and we’re fighting for more and more representation of women in Parliament for women. So this is definitely something that I am personally invested in. There should be more women involved in policy-making and in all kinds of important positions. It is important for us to have women parliamentarians. There seems to be some apprehension when the bill might be implemented. I hope there is no delay and it happens soon. The implementation is the most important aspect.
— MD Pallavi, singer
This bill should have been passed decades ago. Governments before have presented it in Parliament. Each time it got scuttled because of petty politics by different parties. Even this time, its passage has been done more with optics in mind. It will take till 2029 to come into effect. It is already too late and will be much-delayed by the time it is implemented. But it is a relief that it finally is moving forward.
— KM Chaitanya, filmmaker
It is rather shameful that our political parties have to be subjected to such a constitutional obligation to give more representation to women. If the parties themselves had been more equitable, there would have been no need for this. So now, the bill is there, with its flaws, which are to be expected. While making any such law that needs to take into account the complexities of caste-based inclusion in India, I hope the elected representatives - alternately dissing it, on the one hand, and taking credit for it, on the other - will vote it into law. They will have ample time to discuss and improve it in the years to come.
— Prakash Belawadi, actor
It is finally a moment to celebrate and I really welcome it. I am glad we will have a voice. As a feminist, I would definitely want to see a day when women don’t need reservations. I envision a non-patriarchal world where women don’t need such reservations and they have just as many opportunities as men.
— Anu Prabhakar, actor
Rajiv Gandhi was the one who initiated this many years ago and I am happy that this has been passed. But it should not be only for vote-bank politics, it should be implemented soon without any ambiguity. There needs to be a time and date in place and things need to be transparent. I feel women are gentler and wiser in their way of thinking. We are genuinely interested in the welfare of people.
— Nilofer Suleman, artist
I see it as a bit of a scam because nothing in effect is new. The government has amply demonstrated that
when they want to do something, they do it overnight. They didn’t wait for the census before they demonetised the currency for the whole country. I am all for women’s empowerment, but I think because women have been bull******* with for so long, we can smell bull**** when we see one.
— Anuja Chauhan, writer