The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is set to bring a motion in the Rajya Sabha for the long-awaited Women’s Reservation Bill that seeks 33% quota for women in Parliament and state assemblies, in the last week of the ongoing budget session, leaders familiar with the matter said.
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The TMC’s push for the draft legislation is being seen as a political move by the party, which is led by India’s lone woman chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and has got 34% women MPs in its parliamentary team.
The party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien has submitted a notice, under Rule 168 of the Rajya Sabha, seeking to table a motion the House as early as Monday.
The notice, a copy of which is available with HT, said: “India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 primarily on account of the significant decline in the share of women among ministers, which halved, from 23% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021. The share currently stands at 14%.”
It further highlighted that India’s rank has steadily deteriorated over the years in Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Women in National Parliaments Rankings. In 1998, India ranked 95th. As of March 2022, India ranks 144th out of 184 countries.
{{/usCountry}}It further highlighted that India’s rank has steadily deteriorated over the years in Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Women in National Parliaments Rankings. In 1998, India ranked 95th. As of March 2022, India ranks 144th out of 184 countries.
{{/usCountry}}“The Union government has its own priorities. It wants to push criminal identification bill and MCD (municipal corporations of Delhi) legislation. We are asking them, why women empowerment is not on their agenda?” O’Brien asked.
There are currently 15% women MPs in the Lok Sabha and 12.2% in the Rajya Sabha. This, O’Brien argued, is lower than the global average of 25.5%, adding that only 8% of the total MLAs are women across all states in India.
“Only 8% of the total MLAs are women across all States in India. At the beginning of the previous Lok Sabha, the President had said, ‘My government recognizes the important role our women play in the development of our society and growth of the nation. It is committed to providing 33% reservation to them in Parliament and State legislative assemblies,’” O’Brien added.
The draft law that seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies was first introduced in Lok Sabha in 1996 by the United Front government. Similar versions of it was introduced in 1998, 1999, and 2008. The bill came closest to passage in 2010, when the Rajya Sabha cleared the legislation.
It was sent to the Lok Sabha, but the UPA government could not pass it before the dissolution of the lower house amid a lack of consensus among its allies.