Have women been fairly represented in Parliament in independent India?
While the right to vote was provided to all women since the commencement of the Constitution, the representation of women in the Lok Sabha has been far from satisfactory
The percentage of women MPs in the Lok Sabha had been very low between 5% and 10% till 2004
It rose marginally to 12% in 2014 and currently stands at 14% in the 18th Lok Sabha.
The representation in State Legislative Assemblies is even poorer with the national average being around 9%.
Should political parties provide internal reservations ?
It is a perennial issue to promote higher representation for women who constitute half the population in all countries.
The important methods used across the world to ensure higher representation of women are
(a) voluntary or legislated compulsory quotas for candidates within political parties and
(b) quota in parliament through reservation of seats.
Quotas within political parties provide more democratic choice to voters and allows flexibility to parties in choosing women candidates.
Opponents of having a reserved quota in parliament for women argue that it would be seen as women not competing on merit.
As the seats reserved for women would be rotated after each delimitation, it may also reduce the incentive for MPs to work hard to nurture their constituencies
When will the 106th constitutional amendment be implemented?
Voluntary or legislated quotas within political parties are unlikely to yield the desired representation in our country.
This is why the Parliament through the 106th constitutional amendment, in September 2023, provided for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies.
This reservation shall come into effect based on the delimitation exercise after the relevant figures of the first Census conducted after the commencement of this act is published
Hence, the Census which is overdue since 2021 should be conducted without any further delay to ensure that this reservation is implemented starting with the general elections in 2029.
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