Women’s Reservation Bill: Beyond the politics of presence

The long journey of Women’s Reservation Bill 

In addition to voting rights, major women’s organisations were deliberating the question of reserving seats in political bodies as early as the 1930s. In India, bills to amend the Constitution to reserve seats for women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies were introduced in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2008. 

The first three bills lapsed with the dissolution of the respective Lok Sabhas. The 2008 bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha and passed by the Upper House. However, it also lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha. 

In 2021, a public interest litigation was filed before the Supreme Court by the National Federation of Indian Women, seeking the reintroduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill to reserve 33 per cent of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies. 

In 2023, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam received unanimous support in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. But more than 30 months after the law was passed, it is still being debated, raising issues of constitutional, social and political equality. 

India’s commitment to equality

Women’s representation in the Indian parliament and assemblies continues to remain marginal. India is among the countries where fewer than 7 per cent of ministers are women, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, published by the World Economic Forum. 

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is seen as an effort that can enable equitable participation of women. It reflects India’s commitment to Article 15(3) of the Constitution, which allows the state to provide women and children with special legislation and welfare provisions. 

At the same time, there is a need to adhere to Article 15(4) and Article 15(5) of the Constitution, which empower the state to make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes. These constitutional provisions draw attention to the heterogeneous nature of the category of women, and underline the need for policy designs to take into account intersectional social identities like caste and class.    

Women’s political participation from intersectional lens 

Notably, the women’s movement in India has historically been critiqued through an intersectional lens. Marginalised social groups like Dalits, Adivasis, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) often argue that the women’s movement has remained urban and upper-caste centric. This is also evident in debates around the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. 

Reserving seats for women is seen as a move that would facilitate the political entry of primarily relatives of existing politicians or elite women. Therefore, there has been a continued demand for reservations for Dalits and other backward classes within the 33 per cent quota. 

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023 bill requires one-third of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) to be reserved for women. However, the non-inclusion of the OBC sub-quota in the draft legislation has been questioned by some leaders.

Nivedita Menon, in her article titled “Elusive ‘Woman’: Feminism and Women’s Reservation Bill” (Economic and Political Weekly, 2000), argues that the debates around the bill reveal a fundamental set of questions about citizenship and representation. 

Women should not be viewed as a homogeneous group without any socially intersecting identities. Their caste, class, ethnic and religious locations are important in understanding how they should be represented in parliamentary bodies, she adds. 

Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam and implications for democracy 

Both Menon and Mary John (Women in Politics and the Subject of Reservations, 2017) argue that women have been historically viewed as “subjects of political reform”. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is also aimed at bringing about the political reform of women. But what kind of implications does this ‘top-down approach’ have for democracy?

One-third women’s representation in local bodies (panchayats and municipalities) mandated by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments may offer some insights. Reports highlight that elected women sarpanches are often sidelined while their male family members – commonly referred to as ‘sarpanch pati’ or ‘pradhan pati’ – exercise authority. 

While mere representation is not enough, there’s also a need to move beyond distinctions of women’s issues (usually non-political) versus other issues (political ones). This can be made possible by not just increasing the numerical representation of women, but also giving voice to them on diverse issues. This will help make women’s presence in politics an ordinary rather than an extraordinary phenomenon.

What insights global examples offer

Here, comparative examples from other countries can be considered. According to a study by PRS Legislative Research, countries like Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Australia, France, and Germany do not mandate reserved seats for women in legislatures. Instead, some political parties in these countries provide voluntary internal quotas. 

Such voluntary party quotas have contributed to enhancing women’s political representation. For instance, women constitute around 46 per cent of representatives in Sweden and Norway, while their share stands at 45 per cent in South Africa, 38 per cent in Australia and France, and around 35 per cent in Germany. At the same time, some studies suggest that reservations in parliamentary seats often prompt political parties to primarily field male candidates in unreserved seats.

Using data from the Election Commission of India, Geetika Dang and Prerna Sharma, in their study “Why Women Candidates Are More Likely to Run as Independents” (2019), show that of the 8,251 candidates who contested the 16th Lok Sabha elections in 2014, only 8.1 per cent were women. And the largest share of women were independent candidates. This suggests that strengthening women’s participation within political parties might serve as a crucial complement to the Women’s Reservation Bill. 

Need to move beyond mere presence

Women’s political participation also needs to be extended beyond familial and kinship relations. Soumya Bhowmick, in his article “Equality vs Empowerment: Women in Indian Legislature” (Economic and Political Weekly, 2023), argues that implementing reservation in a top-down manner is not going to be enough. There should be substantive representation across caste and religion, and progress also depends on shifts in people’s attitudes. 

Moreover, institutional support in the form of training, mentoring, and leadership development, particularly for first-generation women politicians from socially marginalised backgrounds, remains insufficient. The lack of financial resources, high election campaign costs, and limited access to funding networks further make it harder for women to contest elections equitably. 

Politics continues to be considered a male bastion. Deep-rooted gender biases affect intra-party dynamics as well as voter perception. Therefore, if the Women’s Reservation Bill has to bring about meaningful constitutional transformation, then it has to go beyond the mere politics of women’s presence. It requires party-level restructuring and collaboration between political parties. 

Post read questions

Trace the evolution of women’s reservation in India from the 1990s to the enactment of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Why has its implementation been delayed?

Political representation of women in India is shaped as much by social structures as by legal provisions. Discuss with reference to caste, class, and kinship networks.

Examine the role of societal attitudes and gender norms in limiting the effectiveness of women’s political representation.

Compare legislated seat reservations with voluntary party quotas adopted in countries such as Sweden and Norway. Which model is more suitable for India?

The Women’s Reservation law risks becoming a case of descriptive representation without substantive empowerment. Critically examine.

(Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati.) 

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