On September 12, 1996 the controversial Women’s Reservation Bill that proposes to reserve 33.33 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women, was first introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Bill proposes reservation for women at each level of legislative decision making, from the Lok Sabha to state and local legislatures.

Women have never met with ample representation in Indian Governance in the history of the Indian Constitution. After 60 years of Independence, poor representation of women in legislature is still observed. The current Lok Sabha in which out of a total of 539 members only 44 are women, stands testimony to this fact. The Bill, vehemently propagated by female parliament members and women activists is bound to result in better representation of women in Indian governance. However in the eleven years since it was first proposed no real headway or breakthrough has been seen in getting the Bill passed, the main reason for which is cited as lack of political consensus.

Opposition to the Bill has primarily arisen because of the fear of various political parties that many of their male leaders will not get a chance to fight elections if 33.33 percent seats are reserved for women. The other argument against the Bill has been that it is likely to only serve the interests of women from elitist groups and will thus cause further discrimination of women. This, they insist in unlikely to help representation of the poor or the backward classes.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi party head Mulayam Singh Yadav have from day one spearheaded the opposition against the Bill. Laloo Prasad Yadav in his argument has stated that the Bill would deny adequate representation to other sections of society. My party is not opposed to womens reservation, but the case of Dalits, backward classes, Muslims and other religious minorities should not be overlooked, is his argument against the Bill. But he has gone on to state that he does favour 10 to 15 percent reservation for women.

Mulayam Singh Yadav in his argument has stated that if inadequacy of representation is the issue, why not reservation for Muslim women (there are only two in the present Lok Sabha)? He on the other hand favours political parties issuing 10 percent of their tickets to women.

In the light of all these arguments, the need for better representation of women in parliament is in fact not contested. All agree reservation for women is a must, but they continue to differ on the quantum of reservation. Eleven years has indeed been a long wait for the women of India to get better representation in governance. It is time that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally arrives at a political consensus on the issue addresses the matter of better representation of women in Indian governance and helps the Bill see the light of the day.