India set to join 40 nations in reserving Par seats for women

With Women's Reservation Bill crossing its first hurdle, India is all set to join a league of around 40 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, which have quota for women in Parliaments either by means of constitutional amendment or by changing the electoral laws.

With Women's Reservation Bill crossing its first hurdle, India is all set to join a league of around 40 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, which have quota for women in Parliaments either by means of constitutional amendment or by changing the electoral laws.

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Besides Pakistan and Bangladesh, Nepal is the third country in the Indian subcontinent, which had already reserved seats for the fairer sex in their national assemblies.

According to Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), besides the countries, which have mandated quota for women, major political parties in more than 50 countries have voluntarily set out quota provisions in their own statutes.

In Pakistan, 60 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly (17.5 per cent) are reserved for women. These seats are allocated to political parties proportionally from the provinces, according to the electoral result.

Bangladesh had in May 2004 passed a Constitutional amendment to re-introduce quotas for women. The number of seats in Parliament was raised to 345, around 13 per cent seats (45) of which are reserved for women. Nepal has 33 per cent reservation for women.

However, India's other three neighbours -- China, Sri Lanka and Myanmar do not have any reservation for the fairer sex, according to the IDEA data.

Among other Asian countries, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have 30 per cent quota for women.