India: Women’s Reservation Bill – An Alternative

Greetings!

When I posted my “India Under Siege” many of my critic friends mentioned that posting facts alone in a blog would not solve an Issue. There was sense in what they said. Taking up the challenge I hereby propose an alternative for the “Women’s Reservation Bill” that has been hanging for decades.

Any workable and acceptable proposal should address the following point:
1. Should NOT disturb or affect the current politicians even in the slightest way.
2. The political space should be for GENUINELY interested Women to Contest.
3. The voters of the Parliamentary Constituency should back the Contesting Woman.
4. The contesting woman should be able to contest without an iota of Muscle Power and Money Power.

The current Bill in its present form is flawed – according to the political bosses – because they have to make way for women to contest and also provide muscle power and money power to make their “chosen” “dummy” woman to win. Women are present in every constituency and hence which constituency to reserve is a moot question with no answers – there is opposition even to the proposal to rotate the women’s constituency every election, by draw of lots. Mulayam’s point is to have a quota of 20% for women – because he says with Reservation for SCs/STs and others, additional 33% would leave only 50% of the seats for general category – and these seats are not reserved for exclusively for men!

Hence I have a proposal that addresses the 4 points mentioned above:
1. Women should contest in large numbers across the Nation the usual way.
2. Women who secure 33% of votes secured by the Winning Candidate are considered to be “Genuinely Backed” by the Voters in the Constituency for Parliament. For example if the winning candidate [this can be a woman also] has 100 votes, if a Woman has secured minimum 33 votes, then she is the “Genuinely Backed” woman for the Parliament. If a woman has secured 90 votes, then she is the “Woman Winner”
3. Prepare a List of all such “Women Winners” across the Nation.
4. Now every State should be given 33% of the Parliament seats to “Genuinely Backed” Women. Hence if a State has 30 Parliament Seats then this State should be allotted 10 seats for “Genuinely Backed” Women from this State.
5. The Parliament Speaker can select the “Women Winners” from each of the State to the Parliament.
6. Coming to the Exceptions:
a. If the State has more than 33% “Women Winners”: Meaning if a State has 10 seats for “Women Winners” and if there are 14 “Women Winners” then the Top 10, based on number of votes, would be the “Real Winners”.
b. If a State has no “Women Winners”: Better Luck Next Time. By which time we could have fine-tuned and popularized the system.

This way, I feel, we can fill up the Parliament with 33% of women who are Genuinely backed by the Electorate and also possibility of “Money Power and Muscle Power” is narrowed down to a great extent. This does not disturb the current configuration – dominated by Men. The advantage is that all the Parliament Seats are open to Women.

Last but not the least, these Women Winners who succeed in getting into Parliament should have the same rights as that of MPs and treated accordingly.

I have NOT come across anyone proposing a model on similar lines. Any Comments? Are you Game for this Model?

Sindhu