FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
RESERVATION IN LEGISLATURES FOR WOMEN-AT BEST A
POLITICAL GIMMICK AND AT WORST AN ELITIST MANOEUVRE
In keeping with its Common Minimum Programme and in line with the Resolution adopted by the preceding Lok Sabha at its fag end, the United Front Government tabled the Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill, 1996 at the end of the Budget Session, providing for reservation of 1/3 of the seats in State Assemblies and the Lok Sabha for women. Although a momentous piece of legislation with far reaching consequences, it was' almost adopted without any discussion with the unanimous "support" of all political parties. But good sense prevailed at the last minute and the Bill has now been sent to a Joint Select Committee. This gives the people a breathing space to ponder over its far-reaching implications and its impact on possibility of reservation in legislatures for Backward Classes under Article 15(4) of the Constitution Blocking Reservation for OBC's
The Constitution already provides for reservation in legislature for the SC's and the STs to a total of 22.5% and there is an increasing demand for extending it to the OBC's which today command 27% reservation in public employment only. The Supreme Court having placed a ceiling of 50% on the totality of reservation, the OBC's demand will be consigned to the back burner, till the Constitution is amended to overcome the 50% ceiling. Thus one way to interpret the haste and enthusiasm with which the anti-Mandal parties have responded to the idea of reservation for women is that they wish to block reservation for the OBC's.
The Constitution already provides for 30% reservation in the Panchayats. Indeed, wherever the PRI's have been established under the new dispensation, hundreds and thousands of women have emerged from the seclusion of their homes into the public arena at the local level. Indeed, this experiment which is still incomplete and whose results and impact are yet to be analyzed is being cited vociferously by those who favour reservation for women in legislative bodies. However, the function of the Panchayats to execute programmes and oversee the implementation of rural development schemes is quite different from that of legislative bodies whose major task is to enact laws, formulate policies and adopt programmes of action. Unlike members of the Panchayat who are responsible for effective and efficient implementation of official programmes in their immediate vicinity and who can, therefore, combine their normal activities, including that of a rural housewife, with their public responsibility, legislators serve in distant State and national capitals and generally find it impossible to do justice to their normal vocation or profession or business, if they are to apply themselves seriously to their legislative work. Indeed, being an MLA or an MP is a full-time political activity. Thirdly, it does not call for technical or specialized knowledge to undertake or supervise a Panchayat level activity while legislation demands mass of knowledge as well as a modicum of experience in some public activity and acquaintance with national and state politics.
However, all this does not provide any rationale of reason for keeping women out of the legislatures. Indeed, as female literacy goes up and there is increasing participation by women in various sphere of activity, women are bound te throw up adequate number of persons who are as qualified to become legislators as men. Unfortunately, this is not the situation at present and it may take at least one or two generations before the female level in education and professions, hopefully, matches that of man.
Without in any way discouraging women from participation in public life, even a cursory look at the contemporary world scene or at history will show that 'he level of female participation has never quite equaled that of the male, even if some gifted women sometimes reached other than the rule, even in matriarchal societies. In patriarchal the very top the apex of power. But they were exceptions and male-dominated societies, of course, women were rarely a participant in public affairs. Even today even in the most advanced, liberal and progressive democracies, with the exception of Sweden, the level of the two is not comparable. Certainly, no democracy so far has provided for reservation for women in the legislature - which our country is prepared to do.
Politically Motivated Move
There are various ways of looking at the proposition Some commentators regard it as an exercise in block-vote politics, as a populist gesture, as an electoral gimmick with an eye on the 50% of the electorate which the women constitute, as a game of one up-Manship among the political parties, and, considering the reservations of their leaders and legislators, voiced privately and in whispers, as a tribute that political expediency pays to hypocrisy. One may well ask the recognized parties-all of them-why the representation of women at various levels of your organization is so poor. Why the women have figured so sparsely, election after election, national or state, in the list of your candidates? Why is it that you have never taken pains or made any deliberate effort to enroll and train women as party cadres or workers; And why this sudden outburst of concern for the deprived women?
A Conspiracy against Emergent Forces
The answer his in the transformation of the political landscape under the unrelenting, irresistible bulldozer of Social Justice. Slowly but surely the absolute and total power exercised by the elite-which has largely a high caste face-is diminishing and the political and administrative and judicial space occupied by them is getting reduced. From the situation of monopoly, they are bound to be reduced to their proportionate share, in due course, as the cry for power- sharing and participation by the deprived and disinherited masses pierces through the ramparts of power. This is bound to happen under a democratic dispensation in a plural, multi- ethnic, multi-religious, multi-caste, multi-racial society like ours. It is only a matter of time. How do the losing elite, the dispossessed high castes' compensate themselves? Conscious of the higher educational status and political consciousness of their womenfolk, they have taken shelter under the banner Ultra-feminism and devised the game of Gender Politics so that they can regain on the roundabout what they lose on the swings. The proposal appears to be a conspiracy against the emergent social groups; a pincer move by the dispossessed elite to recoup their loss. This is going to hit the hardest those groups which are still outside the pale of reservation, particularly the religious minorities. The level of their representation in the legislation will diminish further because of general shrinkage of open space and the 'selective' reservation of constituencies for women.
Women: Not a Caste, Community or Class
Women are organically parts of their particular social groups by birth and by marriage, as daughters, wives and mothers. They share the ethos and culture, the hopes and aspirations of their own group. Women do not form a separate social group, a caste or a community or a class. Granted that within their own group they should not suffer from hostile discrimination, they cannot escape the network of Family, Clan and "tribe". So, the high caste elite feel that if their share of power is diminishing, as democracy takes roots and Social Justice becomes a reality, their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law (and even mistresses) should walk in and occupy the space they have been forced to vacate. The thought may not have been articulated in quite such unabashed terms but this is at the back of their mind. After all, all these years, they never took women in politics seriously and always, the wives, daughters and daughters-in-law were pushed into the "vacancy", not as a gesture towards womanhood but towards the 'departed soul"!
Women in Indian Society
Society-governed by the political elite-has never cared for the woman who suffers in one way or the other all her life. Even before birth, she is subjected to foeticide; as an infant, to infanticide; as a girl, to discrimination in nourishment, education and even family life, as a wife, to bride-burning: as a widow, to Sati or lifelong seclusion. She is there to serve; she never eats before feeding her husband; she has to pander to his whims and fancies and always walk a step behind him (even when entering Five-Star hotels). As a working women she is subjected to social harassment; even as a professional she is never an insider. In politics, exceptions apart, she is taken as a butterfly, as a table decoration, as a window dressing. Her views and opinion hardly receive a hearing What needs therefore, to be done is to raise her social status, give her parity in education and nourishment, grant her control over her body and her resources and income, in short, to treat her as a human being, equal to man in the eyes of the Curator, equal before Law, equal in rights and opportunities. Madhu Kishwar has rightly debunked the move for reservation for women in legislation as an expression of "compartment mentality", irrespective of the direction in which, and the destination to which, the train is moving! The oppression of women in our society, the omnipresent discrimination against her will not cease, the society will not change, merely become the proportion of women in the Parliament goes up from 7% to 33%! A few more "powder-and-lipstick" and "Banarsi Sari" types will not make any difference: they will only be subservient to their parties-controlled by men, they will play the political game of their social groups they belong to, they will generally be no more than "proxies" for their men and puppets' in their hands.
Social transformation, to the extent it needs a legal catalyst or underpinning, has to be provided by the legislative bodies such as they are, if they are sincere. Women legislators, it is said, shall pay greater attention to matters concerning the women and the children and such national programmes as education and family planning. May be, but not in opposition to men and never if the social conscience is not touched into political action. And why, one may question should these problems be of concern to women only? Why this attempt to "ghettoize" women, to let them stew in their own juice? No, transformation has to be a joint and common endeavor and legislation is only the end product of a long period of mobilization and gestation which arouses social consciousness and create a sense of urgency.
Then it is argued that as ministers’ women will be less ruthless, less corrupt, less communal and less dependent on criminals or even less criminal. One has only to look at the contemporary national scene to find how hollow the argument is. Woman can be just as ruthless, as corrupt, as communal, as criminal, as her male counterpart. In any case, once again to quote Madhu Kishwar, why 'feminize' corruption? And I add, why 'feminize' crime or communalism?
Man, Woman, Family and Society
In any scheme of social engineering and restructuring. one should never lose sight of the natural differentiation between Man and Woman in anatomy, physiology and psychology which together define their essential role and purpose. Even the "advanced" countries, faced with problems of juvenile delinquency, pre-marital sex, promiscuity, rape, incest, homosexuality and lesbianism, individual and social violence are beginning to diagnose the basic cause the disintegration of the Family as the natural unit of human society, of which the women as the Wife or the mother forms the axis. More than that, woman is the repository of group values and the transmitter of group traditions-the moral and ethical basis of human existence. This explains why throughout human history; mam has been the provider and the defender. No amount of social engineering can escape this essential asymmetry, inherent in and flowing from nature. And yet, we have to find ways to let all flowers bloom, let the full potential of every creative human being be realised and let man and woman becomes equal partners in all social enterprise.
Plea for Hastening Slowly
In all fairness the need for some well-conceived and and well-considered norms must be conceded to make equality of opportunity meaningful for Indian women in the matter of participation in public life. I suggest the following
• Adoption of a Law to Regulate Political Parties.
