Policy Guide

The Womens Reservation Bill, 2008

The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill or the Womens Reservation Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on May 6 2008. This constitutional amendment does not require approval by state legislative assemblies. Presently, women constitute 11% of the newly elected Lok Sabha, 10% of the Rajya Sabha and 7% of the state legislative assemblies.
16% Percentage of w om en MLAs 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Andhra Arunachal Assam Bihar Chattisgarh Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal J&K Jharkand Karnataka Kerala MP Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Puducherry Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura UP Uttarakhand W Bengal
November 27, 2009
Centre for Policy Research Dharma Marg Chanakyapuri Tel: (011) 2611 5273-76, Fax: 2687 2746 www.prsindia.org New Delhi 110021

Main Features of the Bill

The Bill seeks to reserve for women one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. One third of all seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies shall be reserved for SC/ST women. Reserved seats shall be rotated to different constituencies in each state after every general election. Reservation of seats for women shall cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of the Act.

Key Issues and Analysis

Rotation of reserved constituencies in every election may reduce the incentive for an MP/MLA to work for his constituency as he may not be able to contest from that constituency in the next election. A 2008 study on elected women representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions by the
Kaushiki Sanyal kaushiki@prsindia.org
PRS Legislative Research

The Womens Reservation Bill, 2008

PRS Legislative Research

Ministry of Panchayati Raj recommended that rotation of constituencies should be discontinued at the panchayat level because almost 85% women were first-timers and only 15% women could get re-elected when their seats got de-reserved. The Bill does not provide reservation for women from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) within the seats to be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. A similar Bill was introduced in 1996, and examined by a Joint Committee chaired by Smt. Geeta Mukherjee. The Committee recommended that reservation should be provided for OBCs after the Constitution extends reservation to OBCs. Currently, there is no reservation for OBCs.
12%

Percentage of Women MPs from 1st to 15th LS

10%

8%

6%

4%

2%

0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Some experts have suggested alternatives ways to increasing representation of women. They are: (a) reserve seats for candidates within political parties; (b) convert some constituencies to twomember constituency, where two people (one of them a woman) will represent a constituency; and (c) increase the number of constituencies in the Lok Sabha and assemblies and reserve these for women. The advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives are discussed in Table 1.
Table 1: Pros and cons of alternatives suggested by experts
Advantages Disadvantages No guarantee that a significant number of women would get elected Political parties may assign women candidates to constituencies where they are weak Sitting members may have to share their political base Women legislators may be seen as secondary Infrastructure in Lok Sabha and assemblies would have to be increased to accommodate more members Infrastructure in Lok Sabha and assemblies would have to be increased to accommodate more members Members might lose part of their existing constituency

Political parties

Provide more democratic choice to voters Allow more flexibility to parties to choose candidates and constituencies depending on local political and social factors Does not decrease the democratic choice for voters Does not discriminate against male candidates Might make it easier for members to nurture constituencies whose average size is about 2 million people Does not displace sitting members of Lok Sabha and assemblies Since average size of constituencies is 2 million, a decrease in size would allow MPs to manage constituencies better

Two- member constituencies

Increase number of constituencies

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November 27, 2009

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