Mirage of empowerment?

On September 20, 2023, during a special five-day session of the Indian Parliament, which began on September 18, the Lok Sabha, or the lower house, approved the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 (128th Constitutional Amendment Bill) or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (which loosely translates from Hindi to Saluting Women Power Act) almost unanimously — with 454 of the 456 MPs present voting in favour. Next day, the upper house, or the Rajya Sabha, debated the bill and passed it unanimously.

The bill reserves one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies and the Delhi assembly. This will also apply to the seats reserved for SCs (Scheduled Castes) and STs (Scheduled Tribes) in Lok Sabha and state legislatures. The other backward classes (OBCs) have been kept out of the purview of the bill as the Constitution does not provide for political reservation to other backward classes in the Lok Sabha or state assemblies.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, welcomed the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in India, and called on parliamentarians around the world to adopt legislative measures – including, where necessary, gender quotas – in order to ensure women’s voices at the centre of their nations’ political discourse, in full parity with others.

The UN Women has hailed India’s passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill as a landmark moment for gender equality, especially in terms of women’s political leadership. The passage of the bill is testimony to India’s commitment to women-led development, for which it mobilised global support during its G20 presidency this year. Calling it a “bold” and “transformative” step, Susan Ferguson, Country Representative of UN Women India, underlined the importance of political representation for women’s sustained empowerment, while hoping that the proposed Bill will be endorsed by all stakeholders, including members of parliament and civil society.

Major drawback

The current Bill does not provide women’s reservation in the Rajya Sabha and state legislative councils. The Rajya Sabha currently has lower representation of women than in the Lok Sabha. Present Lok Sabha has a total of 542 members out of which 78 are female members. Present Rajya Sabha has a total of 224 members out of which 24 are female members.

The Bill links the reservation for women to the next Census and the delimitation exercise which will follow it. So, when 181 seats for women (one-third of the current Lok Sabha strength of 543) will become a political reality is uncertain. The earliest that one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha can be occupied by women will be 2029. It may be recalled that this provision of tying reservation to a fresh census and delimitation exercise was not part of the Women’s Reservation Bill (Bill no XXX-C of 2008, 108th amendment) passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 when UPA II government was in power, reports The Wire.

The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, on September 28, termed the Women’s Reservation Bill to be a ‘jumla’ (empty promise), as it won’t be implemented till 2034, and the Bharatiya Janata Party was just trying to mislead people, he added.

In addition to this uncertainty, the absence of quota for OBC and minorities would make it more difficult for the marginalised women to raise their voices. Due to the absence of a caste census, the actual number of OBC population is not known. As per the estimation of the Mandal Commission, the OBC population at that time stood at around 52 per cent. The Congress president, while addressing the house, said, “The backward classes may suffer because unless the Constitutional amendment provides one-third quota to the OBCs, their women will not benefit from it. If you don’t do that, it will amount to injustice to the backward classes.”

Moreover, critics have argued that the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB) may actually reduce the participation of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) women. The arithmetic is very simple. Currently, there are 20 SCs/STs women against a total of 78 women MPs in the Lok Sabha. This accounts for nearly 25.6 per cent. However, if women are being elected only from their one-third reserved seats, the total number of women in the lower house, after the implementation of WRB, would be 181 and the total number of SCs/STs women (28+16) would be 44, accounting for around 24 per cent. – 1.6 per cent decline from the present share of SCs/STs women MPs, reports Outlook.

Members of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) opposed the Bill, claiming that it discriminates against women belonging to Dalit, minority, and Adivasi categories, reports The Quint.

Present status of women’s participation

Though the number and share of women lawmakers have increased across the globe during the last few decades, the global average is still around 26 per cent. The number of women lawmakers in Asian and North African regions is very low. Data in Table 1 reveal that as of January 2023, out of 185 countries, Rwanda ranked 1st in terms of women’s participation in parliament. UAE, with 50 per cent share of women parliamentarians, ranked 6th in the world while Papua New Guinea, with just 1.7 per cent women members, ranked 185th.

The table also reveals a wretched situation of India vis-à-vis its immediate neighbours. Compared to India’s rank of 140 with around 15 per cent women participation, Bangladesh (107th), Pakistan (110th), China (94th) and Nepal (54th) are ahead of the world’s largest democracy. Sri Lanka (179th), with mere 5.3 per cent women participation, lags behind India.

Table 2 exposes the real picture of women empowerment in politics in India. Only 78 women won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where BJP had the most women winners at 41, and the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC), had only 6 women MPs.

If we segregate the share of state-wise women MPs into five categories, as mentioned in Table 2, it is observed that: (i) three small states/UTs, Tripura, Chandigarh and Meghalaya have good women representation; (ii) the share of women MPs elected from Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal ranges between 25 per cent and 50 per cent; (iii) economically advanced states like Gujarat (23.07 per cent), Uttarakhand (20 per cent), Maharashtra (16.6 per cent), AP (16 per cent), Punjab (15.38 per cent), fall in the third category; (iv) the Hindi belt comprising Jharkhand (14.28 per cent), Delhi (14.28 per cent), MP (13.79 per cent), UP (13.75 per cent), Rajasthan (12 per cent), and Haryana (10 per cent), fall under category four where women’s participation is very poor; and (v) in the last category of 5-<10 per cent, membership of major states with a very low participation of women in the political decision-making process baffles political and social analysts — very low share of women participation in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana are cases in point.

In the case of sitting women members of state legislative assemblies, the share of women MLAs is far lower in India. Just one State — Tripura— touched the 15 per cent mark, followed by Chhattisgarh (14.4 per cent), West Bengal (13.6 per cent) and Jharkhand (12.3 per cent).

Women members formed less than 10 per cent of legislative assemblies in 20 states and Union territories. This includes states such as Gujarat (8.2 per cent), Maharashtra (8.3 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (8 per cent), Kerala (7.9 per cent), Tamil Nadu (5.1 per cent), Telangana (5 per cent) and Karnataka (4.5 per cent). In the 2023 elections, Nagaland got its first two women MLAs. Mizoram, too, has not had a women MLA in the past seven assemblies.

Table 3 reveals: the state assemblies of Tripura, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Jharkhand elected 12-15 per cent women MLAs. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Sikkim, and Madhya Pradesh (the Hindi belt) elected only 9-<12 per cent women MLAs. The advanced Southern and North-eastern states, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Karnataka, Puducherry, and Nagaland elect only 3-6 per cent women MLAs, and for Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram – the hill states of India — the women’s participation is minimum.

A party-wise analysis of the state legislative assemblies shows that the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal enjoys the highest share of women MLAs (15.3 per cent), followed by the Congress in Chhattisgarh (14.7 per cent). The Congress in Karnataka (3 per cent), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana (3.4 per cent), and the DMK in Tamil Nadu (4.5 per cent) had among the lowest shares, reports The Hindu.

Table 4 shows the status of four political parties with highest shares of women MPs and MLAs. AITMC –a Bengal based regional party has set exceptional examples in ensuring women participation in both the Parliament and State assembly. Two national parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress — have faltered on this important issue.

A few intriguing questions

Sudden introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill by the Modi government in a special session of the Parliament, immediately after the completion of the G20 Summit, has raised a few intriguing questions about the real motive of the government behind this hurried move.

“This is a special day in the history of our country…” These were the opening remarks of a debate that took place on September 12, 1996, in the Lok Sabha, On the agenda was the introduction of a constitutional amendment bill that sought to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. Similar versions of the bill were introduced earlier in 1998, 1999, and 2008, but all four lapsed with the dissolution of those governments. Twenty-seven years after it was first introduced in the Parliament, the Women’s Reservation Bill was revived again by the Modi government in the 9th year of his Prime Ministership.

Data on India’s women MLA and MPs indicate that there was no serious urge from any political party or citizens of any state (barring a few: BJD, AITMC, West Bengal, Odisha) to ensure substantial numbers of women policy makers either in the Parliament or in the assembly. Apparently, all the political establishments were comfortable with the status quo with a nominal participation of women members.

It needs to be mentioned here that the Rastriya Sayang Sevak Sangha (RSS) — the political and philosophical organizer of the Modi government, has no female member in the organization. In 1936, Lakshmibai Kelkar had set up the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, at the behest of RSS founder KB Hedgewar. Even after nine decades, the RSS women’s wing has not moved beyond seeing the woman as mother. RSS stresses on the woman’s central role of imparting sanskar (values) to children and, thereby, strengthening society and the nation.

Apparently, there was no internal political or social compulsion before the government to introduce 33.3 per cent reservation for women. Then, was it an external compulsion that pushed the government to call for a special parliament session immediately after G20?

EU-India FTA and the ‘social clause’!

It may be recalled that India and EU started negotiations for a trade pact in 2007, but talks stalled in 2013 due to differences in issues like customs duties on automobiles and spirits, and the movement of professionals. In 2022, after a nine-year lull, both nations re-launched negotiations. Till now, five rounds of negotiations have taken place. The sixth round will be in Europe by October 2023.

Clair Gammage (2018) observed that achieving broader social objectives remains central to the overall trade philosophy of the EU. Respect for human rights is a founding value or ‘constitutive norm’ of the EU, as reaffirmed by the Lisbon Treaty (2009). As a regional actor, the EU has sought to inject a social dimension into its external trade relations since the early 1990s, through the inclusion of ‘social clauses’ in its FTAs. However, the promotion of values is not limited to so-called universal human rights. It also includes other ‘social norms’, such as labour standards and objectives to uphold the rule of law, good governance and to pursue policies that promote sustainable development and protection of the environment.

Earlier, the EU’s ‘social clause’ was primarily confined to adhering to strict labour standards set by ILO. But the European Parliament resolution of March 13, 2018, on gender equality in EU trade agreements (2017/2015(INI)), “called on the Commission and the Council to promote, in trade agreements, the commitment to ensure an improved participation of women in decision-making bodies, both in the public and in the private sector”.

On labour standards, India is on a sticky wicket. International workers’ groups criticised the Centre’s labour policies, including four new labour codes, at the 17th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which began in Singapore during December 2022. India’s new labour codes violate the tripartite agreements — between workers, employers and the government — and give a free hand to employers, alleged Felix Anthony, workers’ representative in the APRM and senior leader of the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC), reports The Hindu. On the human rights and women empowerment front also, India’s track record is dismal.

The new Women’s Reservation Bill has definitely improved India’s image on social issues involving women. Negotiators will get some talking points to defend India’s stand during the 6th round of negotiations scheduled in October.

With a setback in China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Modi government badly needs an FTA with the European Union. The proposed Women Reservation Act will definitely help to negotiate the deal on the thorny issue of ‘social clause’.

Views expressed are personal