Women’s Reservation Bill

Context: Nari Shakti Vandana Adhiniyam passed by Parliament.

Viewpoints in support of the Act

● Aditi Narayani Paswan: With this bill, women will be guaranteed representation in society, changing the political
paradigm and addressing the extant of social anomalies
● Farzana Afridi: Evidence from gender quotas in panchayats suggests that exposure to women political leaders
weakens traditional gender stereotypes of their role in society and within the home.
● Vibha Datta Makhija: Reservation is the most effective form of affirmative action and equity is the first step to equality.
That it leads to inefficiency or incompetency is simply making excuses for not rendering tightly guarded spaces to
ousted classes.
● Krishna Menon: Women understand that they need to be at the table when decisions are being taken, and the new law
has the potential to ensure that.
● Sylvia Walby: The State dominated by male is a factor that promotes patriarchal structures in society.

Issues with the Act

● Gail Omvedt- Quotas for women are being pushed by women in the creamy layer. Bill will set mainly upper caste
feminists against mainly male OBC leaders, hence will twist the entire debate.

● Nivedita Menon- expresses her fears and reiterates Omvedt’s views. Only women having social capital will benefit.
● Kaleeswaram Raj: Highlighted following issues with the bill:
○ The delimitation as a condition would be opposed by southern states which may further delay the implementation.
○ A census to understand female population is unwarranted as there is no drastic changes in female population
across constituencies.
● Issue of intersectionality: Though separate reservation for women of SC and ST category is given but is silent on
reservation of OBC women- sees women as a homogeneous category- an issue highlighted by the third phase of
women’s movement in India.

● Proxy culture “Sarpanch Pati” will be promoted.

With the bill becoming an act, the focus shall be on the timely implementation of the same by the census and thereby
delimitation process.