Gender inequality

The draft bill for women's representation in state legislatures and parliament has been placed before the house. Whether it will get the legal status, remains to be seen.On previous two occasions, the same draft bill was dumped on protests by parties like SJD and RJD .Although the professed stand of these parties are in favour of reservation, they have some reservations on the proposed bill.They seek a caste based quota on this reservation .
A pertinent question need to be answered. Forget about the bill,why sufficient women are not coming forward to contest elections to state legislatures and parliament as of now?

• Are they wary of the dirty politics ?
• Is the male political bastion not giving them sufficient elbow room ?
• Does the family members object ?
• Is it due to the illiteracy level among majority of the rural women folks ?
• Are political parties having a gender bias ?

There is considerable increase in women empowerment, in many other fields .But the percentage is abysmally low.Besides ,it is all from the elite group and not from the mainstream women folk.When this is the situation one can easily surmise on the thinking of some of the political parties, having a predominant rural support base.Once this bill is passed ,it would become imperative to field 33.3 percent women candidates in each election.In other words the men folk would coerce or intimidate women to contest elections (since many of them would not opt to contest an election on their own volition) . They would be literally driven by the menfolk in their party or family . With 33.3 percent women members in a house , it goes without saying, many of them would even become ministers. One can visualise the kind of extra constitutional authorities that might come in to play.This is what is happening in panchayats now , where this reservation has already been implemented.

Imagine a house ,with one third of the members as women.It would be a colourful house.The presiding officers of the house of representatives may, have some reason to smile.They can at least hope ,the women members would not let loose pandemonium in the house and they can conduct the business peacefully.The reverse could also happen. The women folk could get influenced by the male members and the situation could get worse also.

If the idea behind this bill is women empowerment , I feel the priorities should be elsewhere, as rightly said by the Nobel laureate Amrtya Sen. We should first start with eradicating the female infanticide.Improve literacy among rural women.Give equal employment opportunities in all fields.Above all, should work towards a society with equality in economic independence of women.Once all these are achieved , I don't think there will ever be a need for a bill like this.