Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 Explained | 33 Percent Reservations | History was made on Sept 20

Описание: Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 Explained | 33 Percent Reservations | History was made on Sept 20
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Twenty-seven years after the women’s reservation Bill was first introduced in Parliament, the Lok Sabha on September 20 passed a Bill with near unanimity to amend the Constitution and provide one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

The Bill will now be taken by the Rajya Sabha for passage in the remaining two days of the Special Session of Parliament, and might require approval from half of the States.

About the Bill:
The Women’s Reservation Bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for women.
Reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.
Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.
Need:
According to Global Gender Gap Report 2022, India ranks 48th out of 146 in Political Empowerment (Percentage of Women in Parliament and in Ministerial Positions) dimension.
Notwithstanding its rank, its score is quite low at 0.267. Some of the best-ranking countries in this category score much better. For instance, Iceland is ranked 1 with a score of 0.874 and Bangladesh is ranked 9 with a score of 0.546.
Women’s right to self-representation and self-determination;
The various surveys do indicate that women representatives from Panchayati Raj have worked commendably in the development and overall well-being of society in villages and many of them would definitely want to work on the larger scale, however, they face various challenges in the political structure prevalent in India.
Arguments Against the Bill:
Women are not a homogeneous community say like, a caste group. Therefore, the same arguments made for caste-based reservations cannot be made for women.
Reserving seats for women is opposed by some who claim that doing so violates the Constitution's guarantee of equality. If there is a reserve, they claim, women won't be competing on merit, which could decrease their status in society.
Arguments in Favour of the Bill:
Affirmative action is necessary to better the condition of women, as political parties are inherently patriarchal.
Women are still under-represented in Parliament, and reservations will ensure that women form a strong lobby to fight for issues that are often ignored.
More women in decision-making positions are needed to address the high percentage of crimes against women, low participation of women in the workforce, low nutrition levels, and skewed sex ratio.