Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Women's Reservation bill

Ok so much happening over the Women's Reservation bill so I thought I will put my thoughts as well.
As per my ideology I am against all sorts of reservation based on Caste, Creed, Religion and gender. I may be supportive of reservation based on financial and social backwardness, only if implemented carefully. There is no hard and fast rule that person from a higher caste can't be poor or backward.

In the existing reservation system also I think that there should be some rules that only one generation is allowed to use the Reservation quota or if we think that one will not be enough to lift there backwardness make it two generations. What I wanted to say was if father uses the quota and his son/daughter uses it, no quota should be allowed for his grand sons/daughters. Two generations I think are enough to lift a person out of backwardness. Right now what is happening is same family keeps using the quota for all there generations and the person who really needs the quota is not getting it. Thee may be many cons for this system also, but we need to start thinking about how to get the quota to the person who really needs it.

As I said earlier I am opposed to all sorts of reservation including based on gender but seeing the low representation of Women MP's in Parliament it may be required. The bill is passed but I have some reservations about it.
The first is the 33% quota should also be applied to the 22.5% quota for SC/ST's as it makes no sense to not give quotas for Women in SC/ST's also, as it is where it is needed most.
Second is instead of giving 33% at one time it should have been staggered. For eg. may be 11% every 5 years. There are many women leaders and it will take time for them to come forward and take this responsibility.
The thing I am most worried about is it shouldn't happen that now wife, daughters, and other female relatives of a male politician starts getting the tickets and winning elections. This way it won't server any purpose at all.
The Reservation is there for 15 years and a proper discussion should happen after 15 years whether it is really required before extending it. Not like SC/ST quota which is extended for 15 years every time.