After Badaun: Moment ripe for pushing women's quota bill

The terrible tragedies of the two victims in the Badaun rape-murders can either be used as an opportunity for venting one’s spleen (which is entirely justified but largely unproductive) or as a chance of a lifetime to move our social agenda in a positive direction. While many things ought to be done - Maneka Gandhi wants to set up rape crisis centres in all districts by year-end, others want an expansion of toilet facilities in rural areas, etc. - an overwhelming message needs to be sent against misogyny and patriarchy. The area where the message will have the largest impact is in politics. If the Delhi gangrape incident prompted stringent changes in rape laws (most of them counter-productive, one must add, or else we would not have had Badaun), this time we need to make the right moves for positive impact. [caption id=“attachment_1554741” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP Mahila Morcha workers protesting against the Badaun rape case in Lucknow. PTI[/caption] In particular, we need to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha quickly, now that the BJP and allies have the requisite majority. The bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha four years ago on 9 March 2010, but never managed to make it to the Lok Sabha due to the UPA’s inability to convince its allies to vote with it. The prime opposition came from the Hindi heartland parties of Samajwadi Party and RJD, and, to some extent, from Mayawati’s BSP, which claimed that Dalits may get sidelined in the process. Even though the bill will face continue to face opposition from the Hindi belt, this is the psychological moment when this opposition is weakest and Akhilesh Yadav is on the ropes. Support from Congress and at least three non-NDA parties - the AIADMK, the BJD and Trinamool Congress - can be forthcoming, with three of the four being headed by women. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this is the chance of a lifetime that he should not spurn. A Women’s reservation Bill passed in the very first session of the 16th Lok Sabha will send a powerful message of empowerment and progress that nothing else will. In fact, it will take the edge off Leftist political opposition to the BJP and take the edge of allegations that he is some kind of ideological right-wing hardliner. It could set the stage for the economic reforms that simply cannot be avoided if the country is to progress. I am not normally in favour of reservations and quotas, especially for jobs that need skill and commitment. Reservations ought to be replaced by affirmative action that steadily increases diversity in workplaces. In the field of education, we need universalisation at the schooling stage (with upgradation of teaching quality), while at the college stage we need to expand supply and choice by creating more institutions of high quality. The poor should be helped with scholarships and liberal interest-free loans. But reservations make more sense in gender politics – at least till the time we can be sure that we have seen off the worst phases of patriarchy. Which means around 25 years. A politician’s job requires more of commonsense and judgment – it is not about skill or merit in a technical sense. Quotas may not deliver first-rate heart surgeons, but they can deliver women’s empowerment in legislatures and workplaces . In fact, India took the bold step of universal suffrage even with an uneducated and backward population immediately after independence. In the early 1990s, we mandated reservations for women in local bodies like panchayats. Now, it is time to do the same in the highest temple of power – parliament and state legislatures. Passing the bill in parliament does not mean the job’s over, for half the state legislatures also have to pass a constitutional amendment bill. We can expect resistance from them all. But all BJP states, and many states outside Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are capable of delivering a pro-reservation bills over the next year. The BJP can paint itself a party of change in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where it hopes to be the party in power after the next assembly elections in 2015 and 2017. Modi should use Badaun both for political advantage and real empowerment of women.