Increasing women's representation in parliament

Evaluating alternative proposals
The reservation system of parliamentary seats for women is intended to cause empowerment of women so that their views and interests are adequately reflected in the policymaking and governance structure of the country. Women are half of our population. Therefore, a political system that does not allow for significant and effective representation of women in Parliament can hardly be democratic. Thus any proposal to increase women's seats in Parliament must be judged on the basis of its significance and effectiveness.

Significant and effective participation of women in Parliament can be ensured if the reservation system meets several important criteria. The first criterion is that the system increases the number of women representatives in Parliament in a meaningful way rather than only allow for tokenism such that the women's seats turn into just ornaments, reflecting the "generosity" of the policymakers. Many experts feel that at least a third of the seats should be reserved in order to generate a critical mass of women in Parliament who could become an effective voice.

Secondly, the system must adhere to the democratic principle of direct elections and every member should represent a distinct constituency. Article 65 (2) of our Constitution calls for MPs to be "elected in accordance with law from single territorial constituencies by direct election..." Thus, the basic structure of our Constitution will be compromised without direct elections.

Thirdly, the system should be such that the women MPs are accountable to the people rather than to the party higher ups. Accountability to the people is ensured only when MPs have specific constituencies of their own.

Fourthly, the women MPs must not have overlapping responsibilities. Without specific constituencies of their own, women MPs will have overlapping responsibilities with their male colleagues. In that case, voters will not know whom to hold accountable -- the male MPs or the female MPs.

Fifthly, for women's representation to be effective, women MPs must have equal rights, authority and responsibilities as their male counterparts. If women MPs are not directly elected, they are looked down upon by their male colleagues and excluded from, rather than "included" in, mainstream politics and the decision making process. They are normally relegated to minor, peripheral and symbolic roles, as has happened in the case of women UP members elected from reserved seats.

Sixthly, the system must not allow connections with party bosses to be the determining factor for nominations, rather allow for women's competence be the primary consideration. The difficulty with the reservation system is that since the women MPs do not have constituencies of their own, their nomination do not depend on their "electability." In such a situation, "selling" of women's seats in Parliament for money or other considerations cannot be completely ruled out, contributing to further corruption of our political process.

Seventhly, the best alternative for significantly increasing women's seats in Parliament would be to empower and cultivate a new generation of women leaders with strong grassroots connections who can make the reservation system unnecessary in the future.

This was a significant drawback of the past reservation system that did not establish a mechanism for the creation of new women leaders capable of competing against men and winning elections.

Finally, the reservation system must not be used as a patronage tool for bestowing favours to women in the political party or family. The naked patronage system practised in our "winners-take-all" political culture, ignoring all sense of justice and fairness is perhaps the worst form of corruption.

It is clear that the government proposal is the worst of the six options presented above. It allows an increase in women's seats of only 13 per cent which is not a significant improvement from 9 per cent (30 out of 330) under the previous reservation system. The women MPs will again play symbolic roles and remain as the vote banks of the political parties. The government's proposal lets the party high command make the appointments rather than an election, as demanded by almost everyone concerned. Thus, women in Parliament will be accountable to the party bosses rather than the people, defying the very basic principle of democracy. Their lobbying abilities and connections with the party higher commands will continue to be the primary criteria for such selections. Under the government proposal, the women MPs from the reserved seats will have overlapping responsibilities with unequal rights, authority and responsibilities, and the process will not be inclusive. Another serious flaw with the government proposal is that it will not infuse new blood into women's leadership, making the reservation system necessary forever. Worst of all, it will allow the party higher ups to use the reserve seats as spoils to be distributed among family and friends, making our parliamentary system more ineffective. Given this, we hope the government will reconsider its decision.

In contrast, the rotating system we proposed has many attractive components. Under this system, women's seats in Parliament will no longer serve mere ornamental purposes. More significantly, it will put in place a built-in mechanism for empowering a new generation of women leaders and provide legitimacy by allowing them to be directly elected from a specific constituency The proposal will allow within three terms the election of at least one woman MP from each constituency, and thus the empowerment of a minimum of 300 women leaders. It will particularly open opportunities for women from the grassroots to express their leadership and be elected on their own in the future, making the reservation system unnecessary in the long-run. The proposed system will also make competence and "electability" of women the primary criteria for nomination and prevent the seats from being misused as patronage tools. This may in turn reduce political corruption and lessen dynastic influence in our political system.

In summary, the significant and effective participation of women in Parliament will be ensured if the reservation system allows: (a) substantial increases in the number of women's seats in Parliament, (at least by a third); (b) empowerment of a new generation of women leadership with strong grassroots connections which the previous systems failed to achieve; (c) direct elections which will enable women MPs to develop constituencies of their own (democratic principles); (d) no overlapping responsibilities to ensure accountability; (e) inclusion of women in the mainstream political process; (f) competence rather than connection to be the primary determinant for nomination of the women MPs; and (g) prevention of women's seats being misused as patronage tools.

There is now a widespread consensus among all concerned on the necessity to substantially increase women's seats in Parliament and hold direct elections for those seats. Major political parties also made such commitments in their election manifestos. However, the ruling BNP broke its own promise, with the justification that holding direct elections for women seats is "impractical" as the women MPs will have multiple constituencies with 13 to 15 lakh voters. Our proposal could be a practical alternative to dispel such concerns.

Our proposal is intended to stimulate rigorous and specific discussions about women's representation in Parliament with the intention of reaching a consensus. By making this proposal we have taken the risk of being called radical, especially by groups with vested interests. The strongest argument against our proposal is that the male MPs will oppose it for fear of losing their seats in the rotation process. The critics forget that no one is given a permanent lease to stand for election in perpetuity and be elected. Besides, many countries are now working to impose term-limits on legislators and we should seriously consider such rule as well. Even those who are sympathetic to the idea of increased women's representation in Parliament may find our proposal too challenging. Yes, in the present condition having a third of the seats in Parliament reserved for women is unthinkable, like it was to demand voting rights for women at one point. Yet our commitment to the health, wellbeing, dignity and self-reliance of our people demands nothing less than the political empowerment of women. We must not, therefore, shy away from controversy and criticism, for progress of every noble human endeavour is embedded in controversies.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, PhD, is Global Vice President and Country Director, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh.