Bharat Has Come Back Full Circle With the Women's Reservation Bill - Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam

Can the Women's Reservation Bill expedite Bharat's journey to reach a 10 trillion USD economy?

Why Women's Reservation Bill is a message to the entire World that rapid yet consistent growth can only be achieved through inclusion?

How Women and Women's Reservation Bill enable to creation of a more collaborative and peaceful planet?

The Quote

One of the most ancient scriptures of Santana Dharma and Santana Sanskriti is ManuSmriti, popularly known as Mānava Dharmaśāstra or Laws of Manu. This ancient scripture was written by one of the Seven Sages or Saptrishis – Rishi Brighu.

Swayambhu Manu, the first man created by Lord Brahma, the Creator of this Universe, had conversations with Rishi Brighu about the Laws of Humans. More than the laws, the Manusmriti which is composed of Verses, mention the well-being and Nature of Humans, and what can lead to Progress and Bliss for Humans.

Two Sanskrit verses from Manusmriti are quoted below:

Chapter3, Verse 56 and 57


Meaning - Where women are worshipped, there lives the Gods. Wherever they are not worshipped, not respected, not honoured, all actions result in failure.

Meaning - The family in which women, any woman (that can be a mother or a wife or a sister or a daughter or a daughter-in-law, or a sister-in-law) are full of sorrow that family meets its destruction very soon; while the family in which they do not grieve is always prosperous.

The Juxtapose through centuries

From 3 century BCE, over the next two thousand years, especially after 1200 AD, Bharat saw a decline in Women's rights and Women's independence. That can be particularly attributed to the foreign attackers, invaders and dacoits who not only looted and plundered the Wealth of this Prosperous Nation but polluted the culture of Bharat as well, by forcing ideologies, dogmas and doctrines to generally peace-loving Bharatiyas.

These dogmas and doctrines were further cemented by the British Education System, whose sole purpose was to cut the roots of Bharat and break the Family System, more importantly, the Joint Family System of which the Lady of the House was the Foundation.

The intent was simple and clear:


“Break the Dignity of the Lady of the House, the System, the values, the culture will get broken.”

The Nation where the three essentials of Life; Wealth, Wisdom and Power are represented by Goddesses (Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Sarasvati, Goddess Parvathi), took a beating where Women had to cover not only their complete body but their faces as well, especially in the Northern Bharat, where Mughals had control. The horror of the Mughals was so alarming, that they would abduct anyone whosoever, they found beautiful.

Weddings that were celebratory moments of the day, started to happen in the middle of the Night, else, apprehension was that Mughal soldiers would not only ruin the wedding conducted during the day but would also pick up the bride who would look most beautiful during her Wedding.

The nation where the mother’s name was used to identify the offspring, whether it’s Ramayana, where Lord Shree Rama was called Kaushalya Nandan Rama or Mahabharata where Shree Krishna was anointed as Devaki and Yashodha Nandan Krishna, from there till very recently in 1991, the Sex Ratio (Ratio between the number of males and the number of females) in the country fell down to 927 females for 1000 males. This clearly defined the challenges Bharat went through with female foeticide.

But as the World, has changed, the Community has changed and Bharat is also changing. This is clearly visible with the surge in the Sex ratio for Bharat, which has risen to 1020 females per 1000 males, the highest, in the Independent Bharat’s history since 1947.

Basics and Benefits

Another such landmark change has been brought in through the Women’s Reservation Bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.

Taking shelter of the basics,

What is the Women’s Reservation Bill and why is it so critical for the Country’s economic progress?

Women’s Reservation Bill was conceived way back in the 1990s and was first introduced in September 1996 under the then Prime Minister Shri Deve Gowda.

Subsequently, the Vajpayee Government reintroduced the bill in 1998. But for 27 years, the bill kept doing rounds with most political parties chickening out to agree to give one-third power to the fairer sex who comprise ~ 480 million Voters in Bharat, nearly half the eligible voting population.

As Bharat is progressing, the awareness of the duties, rights and responsibilities amongst women is also rising.

It’s critical to point out here that, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, for the first time, the Women Electorate surpassed the Male Electorate by 0.17% in absolute terms.

Interestingly ~ half a century ago, in the 1962 Lok Sabha elections, the difference between Women and Men voters who utilized their Universal Suffrage and came out to vote was 16.71%. Thus Women not only voted more through the years but have now exceeded the participation to elect their own representatives.

Circling back to basics

• The Women Reservation Bill entitles and reserves One-third of the Seats in the Lok Sabha or the Lower House of Parliament and One-third of the Seats in the State Legislative Assemblies and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for Women.
  
  
• This will also apply to the seats reserved for SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and state legislatures.
  
  
• This bill will come into effect after the exercise of Delimitation is completed. All seats will be covered with this reservation by rotation.
  
  
• The most important part of the bill is that after 15 years, in other words, post the expiry of one round through rotation, when every seat in Lok Sabha and in the State Legislative Assembly including NCR has had a woman MP or MLA, the bill will cease to exist.

The idea is to create an environment where one can be enabled and a level playing field is construed, post which the meritocracy should take over.

“The RESERVATION should not be turned into a RIGHT.”

Bharat has been taking baby steps since independence from Britishers with only 5%, Women Member of Parliament in the First Lok Sabha constituted in 1952 to 15% in the Present 17th Lok Sabha.

In the State Assemblies, the number of Women MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) remains abysmal with only 8% Women representation.

Why is the Women's Reservation Bill so critical from an economic standpoint?

• Women are made more humane, compassionate and Supportive and thus understand and react to situations well. Most Women and most women leaders are not War-mongers and thus avoid unnecessary conflicts thereby prioritizing the development, growth, and well-being of the nation over and above the ego-oriented battles.
  
  
• Women who have a sense of motherhood in them always tend to focus on social infrastructure including healthcare, Safe Drinking Water, and Nutrition, beyond the business infrastructure. This social infrastructure creates better health and overall well-being of the nation, reducing absenteeism, clipping the vicious spiral of Illness-poverty and creating a positive working environment, thereby increasing the Productivity of the Country and its citizens.
  
  
• A hard-working, empowered woman also creates an influence on the children and on the family as the Mother is the first teacher or the Guru of the Child and as the mother acts, the child learns, behaves and reacts.
  
  
• Bharat the Female Labour Force Participation is ~ 33% for women of 15 years or above age. This is a little lower than the global female Labour Force Participation of ~ 50%.
  
  In the last 9 years, this ratio has jumped from 27% a decade back. This change in political participation from Women will enable the female leaders to create policies, systems and processes that even after marriage women continue to remain financially productive and continue contributing to the economic Wellness of the Household.

The conundrum is that the Work, responsibility or worries for the Woman after marriage don’t reduce despite her quitting the job. The work and worries, in fact, both increase, the only difference is that Paid Work now turns into Unpaid, un-noticed by others, silent labour for which many a time she doesn’t even get acknowledgement.

With Women leaders across the length and breadth of the country, the problem will remain in the eye as a sore for leaders as the Prominent one, forcing the political leadership to build, devise and establish an environment where women post-marriage and especially post-childbirth don’t quit their financial independence.

Women mostly are prudent with finances as they always need to plan for the children, children’s future, husband, household and then for themselves. On account of this one can expect that wasteful expenditures to lure the voters or freebie distribution before the election legitimately or illegitimately will be reduced.

Thus Siddhartha Rastogi says that

“Bharat has always trusted, believed and respected the will, determination and courage of Women and this step of having Women in the Corridors of Power will only create further room for women to be part of all sectors and all segments that till now have been dominated by men including Military combat, like Israel where 33% of the Military Force is Women.”