The Womens Reservation Bill is Crap
The womens reservation bill is such a load of bull shit, dont take me wrong, I am all for women empowerment, but this bill, in its present form, will not empower women in India. It will just give rise to a get your sister, wife daughter elected loophole for politicians. Remember Rabri Devi, she was and is the rubber stamp for her husband Laloo Prasad when he coudnt fight the elections, is she a symbol of women empowerment or ridiculement? This bill just give us more of that same ridiculement.
The way the bill is enforced itself is stupid, randomly 33% of the seats in the parliment are going to be categorized as women only, hence only women can stand for election there, this allocation is then rotated the subsequent years. Lets see what this does, one person (male) works for his constituency for 5 years, he nurtures and does lots of development works, come next election his constituency becomes women only, what then is the incentive for him to keep working for that constituency, the concept of getting to know ones constituency is shot.
Take the case of the another woman who has worked for her constituency for 5 years, come next election that constituency gets converted to general, now no party can afford to go beyond the 33% it already has to field as women, so there is a very very slim chance she gets to stand again from that constituency (the party has to accomodate other men right) and so all her work to nurture that constituency is gone, it will take another 15 years before the same constituency will become a ladies constituency, by then she wont be there and the cycle repeats itself. This way nobody will ever work for their constituency as there is no incentive to do so.
Will will never create women leaders this way, for women to be truly empowered there need to be good women leaders but if we keep shunting them around, giving them a chance in 15 years how will they ever become leaders, any leader needs to grow his or her base, understand what their constituency needs and work for an extended period of time with the same people to be effective, this bill will never let that happen.
Here is what happened in the municipal corporation election last time, our constituency got delimited as a womens constituency, there is very little time to find a women leader, so the incumbent corporater just fielded his wife as a candidate and the machine functioned just as if he was standing for election, she never shows up for anything, its he who holds the reins of power, what then is the use of this whole sham. Come next election he will stand again and she will go back to her kitchen, now that is empowerment.
What about my choice, dont I have the choice to elect the person who I feel will represent me the best, how then can you force me to elect a women, especially if there is another man who can represent me better, isnt this against the very principle of democracy.
When will we ever learn, its not the quantity that matters, its the quality, there are no dearth of women capable of leading, but we need to encourage them, not handicap them. Yes we will have 33% women in the parliment, but what kind of women, make shift rubber stamps who will call their husband, son, father or brother for everything.
There are definitely other solutions that can be explored, how about making it mandatory for every party to field 33% of women every time, where ever they may please, the election commission can check and de-list a prty if it doesnt have 33% women candidates. This way the onus is on the political parties to develop consistent number of women who are capable of standing for election (no party can afford to field dummy candidates for 33% of the seats). This way theywill have to develop women leaders, and will result in the true empowerment of women. A woman now has a chance to build a constituency, work for it, nurture it and in the long run she will be a better representative.
Yes this system too has it pitfalls, what if the same daughter, sister, mother, wife stands for election every time, yes, that will happen, but she will only get elected if she is a better representative not because she is just a women, and in the long run she will learn to be a better representative and that is what we need.
I believe that blind reservations have never been successful, reservations though are a necessary evil, its how we implement them that determines weather it works or not. There should also be an exit plan once reservations are enforced and a plan to measure the success of the same without which it will just meander along causing discontent. Same with the womens reservations bill, till when will it be enforced, what is the goal, how to we measure if it has been a success? without answers for these questions what ever we enforce will be doomed to fail.
I am afraid this bill will get passed since there is no party strong enough to say no for the right reasons, they all are afraid to be the ones to oppose it and encur the wrath of women, its become highly fashionable to support this bill but this narrow minded approach will doom democracy in our country.
If my constituency is changed to a women constituency I shall not vote for anybody, thats the least I can do.
The way the bill is enforced itself is stupid, randomly 33% of the seats in the parliment are going to be categorized as women only, hence only women can stand for election there, this allocation is then rotated the subsequent years. Lets see what this does, one person (male) works for his constituency for 5 years, he nurtures and does lots of development works, come next election his constituency becomes women only, what then is the incentive for him to keep working for that constituency, the concept of getting to know ones constituency is shot.
Take the case of the another woman who has worked for her constituency for 5 years, come next election that constituency gets converted to general, now no party can afford to go beyond the 33% it already has to field as women, so there is a very very slim chance she gets to stand again from that constituency (the party has to accomodate other men right) and so all her work to nurture that constituency is gone, it will take another 15 years before the same constituency will become a ladies constituency, by then she wont be there and the cycle repeats itself. This way nobody will ever work for their constituency as there is no incentive to do so.
Will will never create women leaders this way, for women to be truly empowered there need to be good women leaders but if we keep shunting them around, giving them a chance in 15 years how will they ever become leaders, any leader needs to grow his or her base, understand what their constituency needs and work for an extended period of time with the same people to be effective, this bill will never let that happen.
Here is what happened in the municipal corporation election last time, our constituency got delimited as a womens constituency, there is very little time to find a women leader, so the incumbent corporater just fielded his wife as a candidate and the machine functioned just as if he was standing for election, she never shows up for anything, its he who holds the reins of power, what then is the use of this whole sham. Come next election he will stand again and she will go back to her kitchen, now that is empowerment.
What about my choice, dont I have the choice to elect the person who I feel will represent me the best, how then can you force me to elect a women, especially if there is another man who can represent me better, isnt this against the very principle of democracy.
When will we ever learn, its not the quantity that matters, its the quality, there are no dearth of women capable of leading, but we need to encourage them, not handicap them. Yes we will have 33% women in the parliment, but what kind of women, make shift rubber stamps who will call their husband, son, father or brother for everything.
There are definitely other solutions that can be explored, how about making it mandatory for every party to field 33% of women every time, where ever they may please, the election commission can check and de-list a prty if it doesnt have 33% women candidates. This way the onus is on the political parties to develop consistent number of women who are capable of standing for election (no party can afford to field dummy candidates for 33% of the seats). This way theywill have to develop women leaders, and will result in the true empowerment of women. A woman now has a chance to build a constituency, work for it, nurture it and in the long run she will be a better representative.
Yes this system too has it pitfalls, what if the same daughter, sister, mother, wife stands for election every time, yes, that will happen, but she will only get elected if she is a better representative not because she is just a women, and in the long run she will learn to be a better representative and that is what we need.
I believe that blind reservations have never been successful, reservations though are a necessary evil, its how we implement them that determines weather it works or not. There should also be an exit plan once reservations are enforced and a plan to measure the success of the same without which it will just meander along causing discontent. Same with the womens reservations bill, till when will it be enforced, what is the goal, how to we measure if it has been a success? without answers for these questions what ever we enforce will be doomed to fail.
I am afraid this bill will get passed since there is no party strong enough to say no for the right reasons, they all are afraid to be the ones to oppose it and encur the wrath of women, its become highly fashionable to support this bill but this narrow minded approach will doom democracy in our country.
If my constituency is changed to a women constituency I shall not vote for anybody, thats the least I can do.
posted by adarsh adarsh at 3:20 PM
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