Maneel’s Blog

Times of India reported:

NEW DELHI: After the Union Cabinet cleared 50% reservation for women in panchayats, the government is considering a proposal that will make every second member of India’s municipalities female as well.

The urban development ministry is fast tracking the proposal to increase reservation for women to 50% in urban local bodies. Even though the Centre is finding it tough to move on 33% quota for women in Parliament and state legislatures, quotas in urban bodies look much more doable.

The move would help Congress to argue that even though managing the political opposition to women’s reservation in Parliament was not an easy task, its record on quotas at the grassroots level indicates that its commitment went beyond lip service. It has shown this by increasing reservation for women from one-third to 50% at the panchayat level.

The urban development ministry has started consultations with state governments, aiming to place the constitutional amendment bill to reserve 50% seats for women in urban local bodies in the winter session of Parliament. UD secretary M Ramachandran confirmed the move when he told TOI, “The ministry is speaking to the states for increasing reservation limits for women in urban bodies.”

The 74th amendment to the Constitution in 1992 during P V Narasimha Rao’s tenure as PM served as a major breakthrough towards ensuring women’s equal access and increased participation in local government. The move was mooted by Rajiv Gandhi who first spoke of specific measures to empower women at the grassroots.

Article 243 (T) of this amendment provides for one-third reservation in elected seats for women in urban local bodies. There is also one-third reservation for women in posts of chairpersons of these local bodies.

The move is of great significance since further increase in grassroot level participation will broaden the base of women’s participation in politics at city level.

Three states — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — already have 50% reservation for women as states have the power to bring in amendments in their laws to increase women’s representation up to 50%. Kerala recently announced 50% reservation for women in urban local bodies along with panchayats.

Phew! Seriously, reservations for women ? The government has really gone bonkers. Weren’t quotas for backwards too much already ? Weren’t we supposed to phase out reservations 10 years after Nehru introduced them (and he would have regretted his decision to bring in quotas if he was alive today).

So, you reserve 50% for women, 30% for backwards (by caste/tribe whatever) and another 15% for local people (I am blogging from Maharashtra so you guys might get what quotas for locals mean). That leaves 5% shit for average commoners like us. Mr Singh, why don’t you just reserve 5% for us ‘normal people’ and give the rest to the ‘inferior’ and the ‘backward’ and the ‘less privileged’.

And yeah, no self respecting girl/woman would ever want a quota, but to those who actually think they deserve quotas “YOU ARE INFERIOR!!!”.