"..In the first place, we must note that provision has already been made in the Bill for 33 percent quota for women within the existing 22 percent SC/ST quota. Even if the Bill is passed in its present form, it will ensure at least 40 SC/ST women MPs in Parliament (much more than present Lok Sabha’s 17).
Muslims are indeed severely under-represented in Parliament and most Assemblies. While the quota-within-quota for Muslim women can be considered sympathetically, the politically motivated attempts to pit the question of women’s representation against that of minority representation are not only baseless, but in fact mischievous. The question of quota-within-quota for OBC women is complicated by the fact that there is no existing OBC quota at any level in representative institutions. Even in Bihar, where the state government headed by Sharad Yadav’s JD(U) has instituted 50 percent quota for women in panchayats, there is a quota-withinquota for women from SC/STs and Most Backward Castes (MBCs), not for OBCs as such. Without the aid of reservation, OBC representation in Assemblies and Parliament has increased to form a sizeable contingent, proportional with their representation in the population. That is why the demand for an OBC quota has never arisen, unless in context of the WRB. Opponents of the Bill have argued that privileged upper caste women will steal a march over deprived OBC women, and that is how the Congress and BJP hope to reverse the post- Mandal OBC assertion in politics. Experience does not provide much basis for such fears: in the 14th Lok Sabha, of the 50 women MPs, 30 percent (15) were of the OBC category. In other words, once given a chance, the performance of OBC women in electoral politics seems to match those of OBC men, since politics is not a personality contest, and it is the position of candidate and party in the social balance of forces, rather than individual privilege alone, that is the main consideration in candidate selection, as well as in electoral victory..." "..THE DEBATE over the WRB has seen a spate of sexist rhetoric against women’s political representation: witness Laloo Yadav’s proud boast that “India is a maledominated country” and wives, including his own would vote in keeping with husbands’ diktats, or the spectre conjured up by Mulayam of a Parliament that will be emptied of men within 15 years. This misogynistic bluster is not an elemental male rant: it has a calculated political purpose. In the bid to counter the Congress’ ascendancy and consolidate the support of certain social sections, a plank of patriarchal rhetoric against the Women’s Bill is a handy tool. It has been argued that the Bill presents no ‘tangible benefits’ for women and society. A century ago, the socialist women’s movement in Europe and America had no illusions about the ‘benefits’ of bourgeois parliamentary politics, but they nevertheless made universal adult suffrage a key demand of the International Women’s Day protests. Scepticism about the limits of parliamentary politics cannot be grounds to argue against democratisation of parliamentary institutions. The Women’s Bill is not and should not be expected to be a panacea for women’s ills. India is a shameful bottom or near-bottom in the Global Gender Gap Index when it comes to sex ratio at birth, and women’s economic participation and health and survival. Vijayaraje Scindia of the BJP valorised sati; Sonia Gandhi is silent on atrocities by khap panchayats in Congress-ruled Haryana; Sushma Swaraj likewise on the attacks on women’s freedom by Sangh outfits. Greater representation in Parliament and Assemblies will not necessarily resolve gender inequalities, since women leaders in Parliament cannot be counted upon to challenge economic and social structures that subordinate women. That task will still fall to the women’s movement. But the WRB will undoubtedly open up space for greater political participation for the mass of women.." ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 7:06 PM Subject: Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine To: [email protected] Kavita Krishnan , Vice President , All India Progressive Women's Assosiation(AIPWA) Writes in Tehelka about the Womens' Reservation Bill http://tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Op030410opinion.asp --- This message was sent by [email protected] via http://addthis.com. Please note that AddThis does not verify email addresses. Make sharing easier with the AddThis Toolbar: http://www.addthis.com/go/toolbar-em -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
