|Photo Source: International Business Times|
The nature of society and state has a decisive impact on the extent and effectiveness of women’s political presence and participation. Notions of democracy, governance and the state are often not gender neutral constructs but are a cumulative result of both historical factors and experiences. The state and its organizational entities reflect the same social forces as other social organizations.
- The 16th Lok Sabha has seen the highest number of women contesting elections since the 1957. Out of the total 8,136 candidates, 668 were women, viz. 8.21 percent of the total candidates. This is an increase of more than one per cent from the 2009 general election figure.
- Interestingly, the success rate of women in the 16th Lok Sabha elections is in fact better than that of male candidates. In the 16th Lok Sabha elections, 61 women candidates out of 668 (i.e. 9.13 per cent of the total women candidates) got elected to the Lok Sabha. While for the male candidates, the success percentage was only 6.36 per cent (Of the 7,578 men who contested the polls, 482 emerged victorious).
In terms of states performance, the interesting change was noted in West Bengal, where the number of women winning has doubled. It now stands at 14 of 42 candidates from the state. This is followed by Uttar Pradesh, with 13 seats, which does not show any change since 2009.
The global experimentation with different forms of women’s reservations provides valuable lessons for India both inspirational and an early warning, regardless of the passage of the bill here.India ranks 113, much below Pakistan (at rank 72) and South Africa (at rank 5) in terms of percentage of women in the Lower as well as Upper House/the Senate.
- According to the Constitution of the INC, 33 percent of the seats in different Committees, 33 percent of members of the Executive Committees, and 33 percent of the seats for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) are to be reserved for women
- Similarly, Rule 9 of the Trinamool Congress’s constitution reserves 33 percent of seats in different committees for women.
- Even the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party has a ruling that 7 of the 30 members in its highest executive body be women.
This shows that Political parties, collectively, have not been able to meet their decided benchmarks to ensure women participation.
- Parties need to evolve internally to facilitate a greater culture of inclusiveness and operational democracy, for example, measures like internal party quotas.
- The Election Commission of India too can play a pivotal role by holding parties accountable for their stated rules and promises in their Constitutions and manifestos.
- The paper also stresses that there are strong lessons, which can help improve the design and implementation of quotas for women, and therefore, result in better female representation in Indian politics.
According to S Ravi and R. Sandhu, “In almost all political systems, no matter what electoral regime, it is the political parties, not the voters that constitute the real gatekeepers to elected offices.” Such fundamental reforms at any party level are suggested to serve as necessary and strategic complements to the Women’s Reservation Bill. This can ensure that the enactment of Women’s Reservation Bill will not result in mere tokenism.