WOMEN'S RESERVATION BILL IS WAITING TO BE PASSED

The women reservation bill for ensuring quota for women is nowhere near its becoming a law - leave aside implementation despite the plea on the Women's Day i.e. yesterday in The Rajya Sabha by left parties and DMK. Even as the debate rages on the need for protecting women in the country, the long pending issue of the Women's Reservation Bill seems to have been put on the back burner. The Bill was first drafted in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996; it was then introduced in March 2010 after much half hearted effort to keep it in abeyance. The Bill, having been passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, can become a law only if it is also passed in the Lok Sabha. Proposed to provide reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making, the Bill ensured that one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state and local governments. But why is that after almost 17 years after its drafting, the Bill has still not seen the light of day? Why is it that a move to promote gender equality in decision-making bodies has not been allowed to get implemented?

It is so because the males still largely believe that women are not so smart in dealing with worldly matters. Ask any male about this very few will grudgingly admit in public that women are equal or better than them in certain aspects but their number will be more if asked to comment in private. Such is the hypocrisy attached to this issue. For window dressing purposes we have a UPA chairperson at top, speaker of Lok Sabha and leader of Opposition etc. These are few ornamental to be seen posts but political parties at large still do not want to give them the share as per their ratio of population because they consider that they will lose the grip on their respective outfits or they consider them as more as ornamental constitutional necessities rather than capable functional human beings equal in all respects. Politicians camouflage their vested interests with the argument that the Bill would deny adequate representation for the backward sections of society. What they propose is a quota within a quota for certain classes.

Most programmes for women fail to take off due to improper planning at the grass root level. Corruption at all levels; slow implementation and lack of concerted effort nepotism threaten to eat into the little good that has been done for women’s empowerment in this country. This is an outcome of the continuous failure of women’s welfare policies. That the socio-economic condition of women can only be ameliorated if they are also a part of the governance is a fact that is widely accepted the world over. In spite of this realisation, gender sensitivity in administration is still struggling to get a foothold because of the general fear that women might surpass men in all spheres and also intrude in their political affairs, which is largely considered to be a male domain.

The individuals who oppose the Bill tooth and nail should be made to arrive at a consensus in the interest of the nation.  Now let us take a situation where the bill is passed and women are elected to all the three tiers of the government. Here arises a point that Are our women really ready to take up the assigned mantle as desired?
The niggling doubt in mind and unseen writing on the wall says -......"not at all".
Barring a few women who belong to active political families and have their fathers, brothers, in-laws families and husbands already in the politics, the rest of women in the society are not trained, sensitised or ready for the role which is going to be thrust on them by this new women reservation. The reasons are very clear because in the house holds she is led by men and in society too she has been following her man from centuries. All this needs to be taken into account at this stage to mentor and groom future women politicians who are not from political background or lineage.
So then what should be done by the powers that be - to make women aware about their constitutional role and responsibilities from the level of Panchayat to Parliament pan India.
The time is fast running out for Govt of India (if it has the will) to really empower women. Because in actual sense they should prepare women before they bring in the legislation? But nobody is giving it a heed. The Central/state governments should start programmes to specifically train them. The future women leaders have to be educated trained and supported continuously so as to help them to assume and perform their assigned role in the governance of the state at all the three tiers. This has to be done so that their husbands do not usurp the actual powers while they remain just ornamental elected representatives. This cannot be done unless we train and test them on their assigned constitutional roles. Otherwise they will not measure up to their male counter parts.

·     The biggest challenge for a novice is to know and learn - even bigger challenge is to unlearn what they learnt which is wrong and follow the path which is right.

·     They need to be trained because in order to become good leaders they must know all about public administration and governance.

·     It is required so that they learn and know all about their rights, duties, responsibilities, rules and regulations.

·     Above all they need to know the functioning and character of present day bureaucratic structure. They need to know who controls whom so that they do not end up as rubber stamps.

·     They need to be taught about the strengths, weaknesses, hollowness and failures of the existing system so that they know that the whole system before they enter it.

·     They need to know that system is not corrupt by itself but made so by political-bureaucratic nexus. They need to be taught what has happened and what can happens to corrupt leaders and bureaucrats who do not stay within rules of honest and transparent public dealing and functioning. They must know it all and they must be taught to choose the right but difficult path. They need to be taught all about what happens to corrupt political leaders - the laws which can strangle them and finish their careers. They need to be told that the red beacon vehicle can be driven straight to jail also. The need to be taught about the honourous task of dealing with public money without being corrupt.

·     The need to have total commitment to public they are serving being public servants and to have impeccable integrity while being a political leader needs to be over emphasised to them in to days very corrupt environment.

Keeping all the above reasons and facts in view it does need to over emphasised that the government needs to provide a training platform to train WOULD BE AND PRESENT WOMEN POLITICIANS so that they become trained and competent to take their rightful place alongside their male colleagues without feeling inferior to them in any way. The facilities to train/retrain/continuously educate and update the potential women leaders are an urgent need to back up any Women Reservation Legislation. The Government must be gutsy enough to ensure the Bill is passed even if it is at the cost of losing its allies.

IN ORDER TO BUILD THESE WOMEN LEADERS OF FUTURE WE NEED TO  THINK QUICKLY IN UNISON WITH ALACRITY  FOR PROVIDING  CENTRES FOR TRAINING THEM  FOR ALLTHE CONSTITUTIONAL TIERS BE IT LOKSABHAS,STATE ASSEMBLIES OR PANCHAYATS   BECAUSE WITHOUT THE TRAINING AND EDUCATION THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PERFORM THEIR ASSIGNED ROLES.