Relevance of Women's Reservations

President of India

Women reservation is an issue of national debate, even in president's speech this topic managed to gained special importance, but if we look at the facts about the field of women empowerment then the statistics are quite surprising, Today Pratibha Patil is sitting on the chair of president, Meera Kumar holds the post of speaker of Lok-Sabha, largest political party of country is lead by Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj is deputy leader of opposition, Mayawati is chief minister of a state which holds maximum number of Lok-Sabha seats,Mamta banerjee has been giving real tough 

chairperson of largest political party

time to Left Front, and womens like Rabri Devi,Jayalalita and
Vasundhra Raje Scindhia have also had the taste of power in their states, 15th Lok sabha has more than 10% women M.P's in the house.the truth is that women are leading in all fields of national-life but still there are people who think they should be given 
reservation.

leader of opposition in LOKSABHA

Basic question arises here is that ,Is the reservation only solution of all problems of national life ? Muslim groups are demanding reservation on the basis of their religion, we all remember the controversy which arise on the counting of number of Muslims in Indian Army, parties like Congress, SP, RJD, LJP are supporters of reservations on the basis of religion, all of us witnessed the heavy destruction caused during Gujjar movement, and now there are demands of reservations in the private sectors, youth of different classes have started putting questions on their respective political party's reservation kota, question of women reservation has been hanging like a sword for the last 13 years.

CM of largest state

                                                         
But reality is that, no reservation could be justified its not a healthy competition, it only snatches up the rights of talent and ability, it strongly hurts the talented people, and the one who is favored by reservation looses his respect and dignity, reservation is against the principal of equal citizens, equal cultures and one nation.

                                                

CM of Delhi

Constitution developers of India were strictly against the principal of reservations, in constitution meeting topic of reservations was discussed for complete two days Naziruddin Ahmad said " any sort of reservation will have negative effect on political development of country and it  will develop the feeling of inferiority", Jagat Narayan Laal said "India will be a secular state and after this there shouldn't be any demands for reservations." many members spoke about this topic and among all of them no body justified the basic thoughts behind reservations, but they agreed that in the current prevailing situations it would be better to give temporary reservations to schedule castes, J.L Nehru said " I want that even the remaining reservations 

leader of TMC

should be abolished , but in current scenario it won't be a smart step to remove reservations for schedule castes." 

                                                                                                           So the reservations for schedule caste was temporary, and there is a provision of reviewing them after the regular interval of 10 years, makers of our constitution allowed reservations to schedule castes for their upliftment and bringing them to the mainstream of the society, but there was also a provision of schedule caste commission, to analyze the profits and loss of reservations {annexture 338}, now if even after 62 years of 

leader of AIADMK

independence there is a need of women reservations then its really a matter of shame for nation and all of us, and the key question which arises here is that will this reservations be permanent ?

                                                      
Our constitution has given us some fundamental rights and according to annexture(15) nation can not differentiate among its citizens on the basis of state, religion, caste, sex or birth place but reservation enforces the nation to differentiate among its citizens, makers of constitution had a dream that nation-state will benefit every one by its economy, governance and policies and all the boundaries like caste, religion, region and sex will vanish one day, and nationalism will be only indistinguishability.                                          


Central and state governments have invested a huge sum of money for upliftment of people, and people of all castes, societies and sectors have been benefited, but still more than 30 crores of people are below poverty line, but in the fields like education, science, engineering, infrastructure and capital development, progress has been phenomenal, and advantages and profits of national economy and development has been received equally by men and women.

                                                                                                                                                  Basic question is after all what is the need of reservation in 62 years old competitive democracy ? Is Indian national-state working with injustice and being impartial towards some castes, religions, sex and groups ? If we look at ancient history of India which explains us that women have always been treated with utmost respect, and enjoyed special position in India, and those days there was no reservation for women, and if we look at modern times then we have example of Indira Gandhi who enhanced India's pride,honor and prestige in Bangladesh war, arguably better than a man .

            
So basically what is the fundamental relevance of women reservation ? there have been many suggestions given by different political parties about women reservations, like Samajwadi party wants to bring in the caste system in women reservations which means separate reservations for women of schedule castes, backward classes and Muslims women, and the demands of BSP are also similar. States like U.P and Bihar have women reservations in Gram Panchatyat, and if we leave the exceptions then most of the posts of those women are actually run by either their husband or any other relative, S.P also gave an suggestion that according to reservations, distribution of tickets should be left on the parties, although BJP has opposed the idea of including caste system in women reservation and congress also seems to agree with BJP on this issue, but there are lots of questions that arises here

• Will women reservation be able to help the process of women empowerment ?
• Will women reservation be permanent unlike the reservations of SC/ST and backward classes ?
• Is reservation appropriate and only option for for upliftment of women ?
• If these reservation won't be permanent then what would be its time limit?
• How it would be judged that women reservation has achieved its objective and how it would be abolished?
• what would be the consequences of these reservations?

If its so important to give reservations to women, then all these issues should also be kept in mind and there should be a through and sincere debate over these topics, and above all there is a requirement to think that by giving these reservations aren't we doing injustice to people of other sex ?