Women Reservation Bill will be Passed before 16th March 2010

Women Reservation Bill will be Passed before 16th March by the Government in Lok Sabha as the house adjourns  for a three-week break, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal in New Delhi today on March 10, 2010. Check here for latest Women Reservation Bill, benefits and drawbacks of women reservation

The Women’s reservation Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 9 March, 2010 by a majority vote of 186 members in favor and 1 against.It will now go to the Lok Sabha, and if passed there, would be implemented.

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the historic bill giving one-third representation to women in parliament and state legislatures.

“The government will manage to get the support of all its allies when it comes in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. We will manage the family,” Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters when asked about the Trinamool Congress abstaining from voting in the Rajya Sabha.

Parliament will adjourn March 16 for a three-week break and will meet April 12. The session concludes May 7.

Women’s Reservation Bill is a pending bill in India which proposes to provide ‘thirty three per cent of all seats in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies shall be reserved for women.’

Possible benefits

• More women participation in politics and society.
• Social norms in India strongly favor men, therefore, reservation for women is expected to create equal opportunity for men and women.
• Due to female foeticide and issues related to women’s health, sex ratio in India is alarming at 1.06 males per female. It is expected this will change the society to give equal status to women.

Possible drawbacks

• Passing the Women’ Reservation Bill may cause bias in the democratic process because of the following reasons:
• Powerful male members of parties will be tempted to field female relatives to ‘reserve’ the seat for themselves during the following cycle.
• Parties will be forced to field women whether or not the women identify with the overall party agenda and the rest of the issues concerning all citizens, as opposed to just women’s issues. There are no provisions to prevent discrimination against men because of fielding women who are inclined towards women’s issues alone, or, in other words, biased against men.
• Parties will be forced to field unsuitable female candidates or those of lower calibre just to fill the seats and treat like them puppets, which will defeat the purpose of increasing representation of women in the parliament.
• It is likely that the contributions of capable women, who earn recognition and respect by the dint of their own hard work, may be undermined. Paradoxically, this can make it harder for women to rise to senior level of political positions, such as, Chief Minister of Cabinet Minister.
• Passing the Women’ Reservation Bill may create a bias in the minds of some voters and cause them to start voting or stop voting on the basis of gender and not based on publicized agendas of parties or issues related to all citizens.
• Passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill will take away the democratic right of 33 per cent of the electorate to elect their representatives. It restricts the choice of both men and women in the reserved constituencies. It can be argued that the state has no right to limit the pool of representatives available to the public to choose from. This is against all democratic principles of choice.

Hey, you can also share your views and opinions about this women reservation bill with us and with our readers of our website, the only thing you need to do to discuss is to write your views in the comments below.

Related posts

• Will Lokpal bill passed in Rajya Sabha Today? (0)
• Lokpal Bill 2011 Presented in Lok Sabha (0)
• Sine Die postponed by Rajya Sabha (0)
• Schedule of Lok Sabha elections 2009 – Dates of General elections in India – April 16 to May 13 – counting on May 16 (0)
• Nuclear Bill or Nuclear Liability Bill Passed by Lok Sabha (0)