Bill to reserve one-third of legislative seats for women advances in India

NEW DELHI -- Indian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a historic bill that would set aside one-third of all legislative seats for women, a move aimed at overturning six decades of male-dominated decision-making in this country.

The bill, which drew fierce opposition before its passage in the upper house of parliament, would guarantee seats for women in the national legislature and all state assemblies in the world's largest democracy, where women have been largely kept on the sidelines of the legislative process.

The bill must still be passed by the lower house of parliament. It is expected to pass, although analysts say opponents could use political maneuvers to delay the bill.

"This is a momentous development in the long journey of empowering our women. Women are facing discrimination at home, there is domestic violence, unequal access to health and education. This has to end," India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said after legislators approved the bill Tuesday. The new quotas, he said, will be "living proof that the heart of Indian democracy is sound and is in the right place."

Only 59 women were elected to the current 545-member Lower House of the Indian parliament. The new law would raise their total to 181 in the next national election.

Women's representation in politics is not new to South Asia. Several nations, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have elected women to their highest office. India elected a woman, Indira Gandhi, as its only female prime minister four times between 1966 to 1984. But the region's women have lagged behind in life expectancy, literacy and legal rights.

In its 2009 report on global gender disparities, the World Economic Forum ranked India 114th in a list of 134 countries. Gender bias is widely blamed for cases of female infanticide that have worsened India's sex ratio to 933 women for every 1,000 men. According to UNICEF, about 36 percent Indian women are chronically undernourished, and one-third of the world's child brides are in India.

Advocates of the bill say that greater female representation in Indian politics will help make women's issues a higher priority for policymakers.

"Issues like female infanticide will no longer be seen as a soft subject but will become the core of the nation's political agenda" said Brinda Karat, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), during the debate in the upper house.

Tuesday's passage of the Women's Reservation Bill was not without controversy. After it was tabled on Monday, some lawmakers tore up copies of the bill, flung the shreds at the chairman of the upper house and shouted their objections.

Opponents objected to the bill because they said it lacked specific quotas for women from lower castes and religious minorities. Similar objections had held up the bill on three other occasions over the past 14 years.

"We are being unfairly defamed as anti-women. All we want is that the women from real India, like those toiling in the farms and villages, are brought forward," said one opponent, Laloo Prasad Yadav, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party.