11 December 2024 : Daily Answer Writing
Q1) Highlight the significance of the 106th Constitutional Amendment Act and the challenges facing its effective implementation.
(150 Words/10 Marks)
ANS:
The 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023 [Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam] provides for reservation of one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies. The amendment aims to empower women politically and enhance their representation in law-making processes of the country.
Significance of the 106th Constitutional Amendment Act:
- Gender equality: The act mandates the reservation of one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies – (a) greater participation of women in the political process and decision-making; (b) breaks stereotypes, such as politics as unsuitable for women, or vice versa and challenges the conventional gender roles assigned to women.
- Broadens range of perspectives: (a) provides women-centric views to a plethora of women-centric issues, such as gender-based violence and low female labour participation; (b) broadened perspective translates into better policies and laws; (c) women’s perspective may make laws more compassionate and inclusive.
- Implications on politics: (a) reduction in legislators with criminal cases [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes reports a substantial male over-representation in crime rates]; (b) an enlarged pool of candidates will provide political parties with more flexibility in choosing candidates.
- Implications on society: (a) studies have shown that women Panchayat leaders invest more in public goods closely linked to women’s concerns; (b) as per Oxfam India, increased representation of women at local levels increased crime reporting and improved access to basic amenities; (c) women representatives have also been linked to improved infrastructure development; (d) women political leaders serve as role models for the next generation of women leaders
- Will help India in fulfilling global commitments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women demands the elimination of discrimination against women in political and public life.
However, there are challenges ahead the 106th Constitutional Amendment Act:
- Timely implementation: implementation is dependent upon the next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise, which shows a lack of political will.
- Political considerations: (a) Provisions exclude OBC quota from the Act, effectively excluding 27% of the seats; (b) Political parties may allot women representative unwinnable seats.
- Capacity building of women representatives is a major hurdle for truly realising the goals: (a) experience of women’s reservation in local bodies is a glaring example how opportunity without capability is ineffective; (b) Policy and legal measures to tackle gender-based and political violence need to be taken.
- The absence of intra-party democracy will translate women representatives as being used as decoys to fulfil legal requirements.
- While representation is often seen as empowerment, it may not always manifest in intended outcomes. For example, reservation for women in PRIs resulted in the phenomenon of ‘sarpanch pati’.
