Editor,
On the early morning of September 18th, I was going through the news when suddenly a Hindi news portal started popping up, saying, “Mahila arakshan par credit lene ki race lagi hai.” I yelled, “Hattttt!!” and scrolled up the screen. There, again, was Zee news, stating, “Modi cabinet ne mahila arakhsan par manjuri dedi hai.” Alas, I had no option but to keep watching it, since the topic of women’s reservation had always been on my mind since my days of preparation for civil service exams in Delhi.
After watching all the news portals, I have observed that the discussion and debate on the “Women’s Reservation Bill” has consistently been raised in parliament. I am quite shocked to learn that such an important bill has been lingering without passage for more than a decade. I don’t understand why.
The topic is indeed very important, but what’s wrong with the media? They are busy saying, “Congress party ne Rajiv Gandhi aur Sonia Gandhi ke purane basano ko dikhake unhe mahila arakshan ka credit de rahe hain” and what not. Therefore, I decided to shift to other, more reliable news portals.
Women Reservation Bill:
The Women’s Reservation Bill, aims to allocate one-third (33%) of all seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women. This also implies that one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be designated for women from these groups.
This bill holds immense significance for women, providing them a platform to voice their concerns in the country’s parliament. However, despite being passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, it lapsed in the Lok Sabha. Since then, the demand for women’s reservation in legislative bodies has persistently lingered.
I opened “Ravish Kumar official” you tube channel and could understand it more properly. He said that even if the women reservation bill gets passed today, it won’t be implemented, unless the delimitation is completed by the year 2026.
It does reminds us exactly how the citizenship amendment bill was deliberately passed in the year yet till today it has not been implemented to which Ravish sir wittily says, “yeh bhi lapata hain.”
The reporter on NDTV asked a person about the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB), and he explained, “According to Article 82 of the Constitution, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every census. Since no census has been conducted or completed after 2011, delimitation has not yet taken place.” The reporter then asked him to elaborate, and he reiterated exactly what Ravish sir had stated on his YouTube channel: “The WRB can only be implemented after delimitation has been completed, and delimitation can only be completed when the census has been conducted.”
“Does this mean women have to wait?” inquired the lady reporter, to which the guest replied, “Yes.”
I myself was captivated by what I was hearing. The Women’s Reservation Bill, which was supposed to have been implemented earlier, now has to wait until at least 2029. This is because in 2021, the census was scheduled to be conducted, but due to COVID, it couldn’t be carried out. Now, experts suggest that the census can only be completed by 2028 if it begins in 2027. So, as an example, if the census is completed by 2028, it means the Women’s Reservation Bill will only be implemented after 2029, because after the census, there will be delimitation.
“Yeh majak acha hai,” Ravish ji humorously quoted again on his channel. He further stressed that the talk on WRB as always been there, where the weaker section of women would get reservation but the Modi government has failed to mention it on their draft of Women Reservation bill.
Coming out of Ravish ji and other media channel, let us think properly, there is no dearth of evidence that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi the women section has always been kept in touch and effort of initiatives to empower the women has always been carried.
“India can move forward only by raising the levels of respect for women and by enhancing the sense of equality. I call upon all of you to move forward with the determination to remove every obstacle coming in the way of all women,” PM Modi said this while speaking of his last 9 years of his service.
So did the women section get what they really deserve? No government is perfect but women should ponder and answer, Do you think Mod govt. has done enough for women?
Let me give you a data from The Wire.
The BJP’s 2014 election manifesto stated that under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, “crimes against women have(d) reached unacceptable levels” and blamed this decline onto a “gross misuse and total denigration of government and institutions,” yet in their nine years, crimes against women have only increased.
As per the National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB) records, in 2012, 2.44 lakh crimes against women were reported. This number jumped to around 4.28 lakh in 2021, implying a 42.96% increase in total crimes reported in years since the BJP came to power.
Moreover, the rate of crime committed against women, per lakh population, was 41.74 in 2012 and it rose to 56.3 in 2014. In years since then, the crime rate has fluctuated, but as per the latest NCRB report 2021, the rate increased to 64.5 in 2021. (report Wire).
It is indeed ironic that women in our society continue to bear the burden of gender discrimination silently. When we turn on the news channels, our minds are inundated with reports of police brutality against women on the streets. This includes even renowned women athletes and Olympic champions who were protesting against sexual harassment. Sadly, the government seemed to turn a blind eye to these incidents. The recent episode in Manipur, where two women were shamefully paraded naked and subjected to open acts of harassment, serves as a stark reminder of this reality. One cannot help but wonder if these events have severely eroded the government’s credibility in fulfilling its promises to enhance women’s safety. It also raises doubts about the Prime Minister’s commitment to his own words.
Despite all of this, the Women’s Reservation Bill remains far from being implemented. This raises a significant question for us as men. We may believe we are meant to rule the world, but amidst progress and politics, we seem to have forgotten that it is women who have nurtured and raised us. It is the women who should be leading the country. I personally believe that a “woman is naturally an ordained home maker,” and our country is our home. Without our women, our home will remain ruined, dilapidated and disarrayed.
We do not want that. I am also positive that our current government will ensure the implementation of the crucial bill in the days to come.
Jon Pebi Tato