:: Jayanthi Natrajan

30%: A fair share for the fair sex?

Jayanthi Natarajan

Oct.12 : The media images of a young woman flight attendant breaking down, while relating how the commander of an airplane and his co-pilot shouted at her and shoved her, juxtaposed with the horrific video footage of an unrepentant looking mother-daughter duo in Tamil Nadu who had, quite determinedly, killed in the incubator itself two girl infants whom the daughter had just given birth to, served for me as a stark reminder of how things remain the same however much they may appear to change. I had just returned home after attending a conference regarding the status of women in national Parliaments and the importance of ensuring adequate numbers of women in national Parliaments.

As I watched these news reports, I could not help reflecting — that, on the one hand, if this was the behaviour of allegedly educated men earning lacks of rupees a month, and in-charge of an aircraft and the lives of several hundred passengers, towards an educated young woman, a crew member with far more awareness than the average illiterate Indian woman, imagine the plight of that helpless woman in a remote village in India far less aware of her rights, with even less of a voice to articulate the most pitiful of her grievances. And, as for the mother and daughter who killed the baby girls, what can be said? Predictably enough, they have been arrested.

But I would ask every thinking citizen to place hand on heart and say if they really blame the daughter or her mother? Were these women not victims of circumstance? They will undoubtedly stand trial for murder and infanticide, and be punished according to law, but who is to punish the real culprits, namely, the husband and his family who inspired such fear in the young woman that it motivated her to kill her own newborn infants? Who, in fact, will punish the society which made such unfeeling monsters out of some men that they regard daughters as disposable commodities, either murdering them at birth or selling them in youth, for the price of a bag of wheat or paddy? Is further proof than this needed that at every level of society, it is women who are the most disadvantaged and wretched of citizens.

Empowerment is something that is far more deep and complicated than just representation in Parliament. There are, in fact, some activists for women’s rights who argue that gender quotas in Parliament are a mere beginning, and that empowerment must be enabled and facilitated at all levels. At best, quotas are a tool to measure in quantitative terms the success of one gender-equity policy initiative. In order for the problem to be addressed in all its complex dimensions, it is first necessary for women to get elected to Parliament in a critical mass which is able to make a difference (research has determined that mass to be approximately 30 per cent), and then it becomes incumbent upon those elected women, as well as their male colleagues, to address the depth of gender disempowerment in our country.

In this background we need to reflect on the relevance of the same old hackeneyed and clichéd arguments which are trotted out, by rote, whenever a discussion regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill comes to the fore. The short answer is that women of all classes, at every level of wealth, status and achievement — or disempowerment — in our democracy are disadvantaged. And if we are to call ourselves a genuinely free democracy, we should take steps to ensure equal participation of women at all levels of national development. The Women’s Reservation Bill is but one, albeit crucial, step in that direction.

The latest world trends and statistics of women in Parliaments are revealing. In 1945, in 26 Parliaments there were three women in the Lower Houses and 2.8 per cent women in Upper Houses. In 1965, out of 94 Parliaments, this percentage increased to 8.1 and 9.3 per cent respectively. In 1985, the figures were 12 per cent women in the Lower Houses and 12.7 per cent in Upper Houses, and in 2009, in 187 Parliaments there are 18.8 per cent women in the Lower Houses and 17.85 in Upper Houses.

Further, more than 15 per cent legislatures in the world have provided reservation of 30 per cent of their seats for women, and Rwanda is the first country in the world to elect a majority of women members to its Lower House of Parliament (56.3 per cent). The Upper House of Bahamas has set another record by electing women to 60 per cent of its membership. But these are notable exceptions.

One-fourth of all parliamentary chambers — 51 Lower Houses and 14 Upper Houses out of 264 — have less than 10 per cent women members, and five Lower Houses of Parliament have no women members at all. Out of all the countries which have 30 per cent or more women in their Lower Houses, more than 75 per cent have adopted measures to promote women’s participation which, admittedly, includes both legislated (as in the case of legislated quotas, which we have done for local bodies, and are trying to do for Parliament and the state legislatures) and voluntary quotas (such as those being suggested for political parties to adopt).

Figures for 2008 show that only 4.7 per cent of the heads of state the world over are women, while women heads of government are 4.2 per cent. Women heads of Parliament are 10.7 per cent of the total number. Only 16 per cent of ministerial portfolios worldwide are held by women, and in 13 countries there are no women Cabinet ministers at all.

The message from the international conference was stark and clear: Greater numbers of women need to be elected to Parliaments world over, and they need to be at least 30 per cent of the total number, in order to make a difference to the status of women.

We can quibble, play politics, dwell upon real and imaginary pitfalls arising out of the Women’s Reservation Bill and other initiatives to empower women, but the inescapable truth remains that we cannot call ourselves a true democracy until women share national development as equal partners.

Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson.

The views expressed in this column are her own.