BENGALURU: Women activists hail the move of the union government that has tabled the women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha and said this could be a great step for women’s political power. They said that this move will give the current government a lot of political capital now, even though they may or may not pass the bill and the reservation will come into force only after the 2027 delimitation.
“The women’s reservation bill tabling in Lok Sabha is a long-awaited move, and all Prime Ministers since Deve Gowda, Gujaral, Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh have tabled and passed it in the Rajya Sabha,” said women activist Tara Krishnaswamy.
The current government has a full majority in Lok Sabha, and with their ND A alliances they have the majority in the Rajya Sabha and the bill will pass. However, the state assemblies must ratify it (at least 15 state assemblies), which is not clear, given the upcoming state assembly elections. We will have to wait for how this pans out, Krishnaswamy added and said that this gives the current government a lot of political capital, even though they may or may not pass the bill.
Krishnaswamy said that the women’s reservation would be implemented post-2027, and the current government is attempting to derive all the benefits and dubbed the move as a political stunt as there was no need to call a special session of the parliament.
Lawyer-activist Pramila Nesargi said that the bill will become a reality and at least for the fear of getting admonished by the people if they do not support it, opposition parties in the states across India will extend support for the bill. “This is nothing but restoring the rights of women that were stolen in the past. Through this one step, the nation is going to witness a change as more and more women will be entering politics. Irrespective of the political party, all must reserve seats for women and groom them.” Nesargi said and added that they would fight for 50 per cent reservation.
She said the original credit should go to the ones who implemented the reservation. Retired bureaucrat and former chief secretary of Karnataka Ratna Prabha said, “Zilla panchayats, gram panchayats and corporations have 50 per cent reservation for women. It was much needed in the parliament, where the women’s representation is around 15 per cent. Through this reservation, the representation of women will jump to 33 per cent.” If the representation of women in the parliament is doubled, we can expect a big change in policy-making and gender-sensitive policies. “More women leaders will emerge from different parts of India,” Prabha said and added that she is expecting that bill to sail smoothly.