September 21, 2023 marked a historic milestone for India as the Lok Sabha approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023, in the newly inaugurated Parliament building.
The bill passed in both houses of Parliament almost unanimously — with just two dissenting votes — will ensure that women occupy at least 33% of seats in State legislative assemblies and the Lok Sabha. This also resonated globally when then UN Women’s India Country Representative Susan Ferguson said, “India’s bold step sends a clear message to the world that the path to gender equality is not only essential, but attainable.”
But there are others like activist K. Ajitha of the Kozhikode-based Anweshi Women’s Counselling Centre, who feel that the adoption of the Bill in Parliament “was understandably an election gimmick, intended to sway the women towards the ruling party.“
Despite their approval of the Women’s Reservation Bill, none of the political parties in the country have made a move to at least implement it while announcing their list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. The situation is no different in Kerala where 50% seats are reserved for women in local bodies.
Offering Lok Sabha seats for women has always been a touchy subject in Kerala. The number of seats any coalition has offered to women candidates in the last twenty years is a maximum of three while if the Women’s Reservation is implemented, it should ideally be seven as the State has 20 Lok Sabha seats.
The United Democratic Front, the Left Democratic Front and the National Democratic Alliance had together offered six seats to women candidates in 2004, which has not been raised since. The three alliances offered just two each out of 20 seats to women candidates in 2014 and 2019.
For the 2024 polls, the UDF is yet to announce its candidates, but with the alliance unofficially deciding to field all its incumbent MPs, there is no hope for any more women. This makes Ramya Haridas, the only woman from the State in the Lok Sabha at present, the only woman to get a UDF seat. The UDF had fielded Shanimol Usman in Alappuzha in 2019, but had lost.
The LDF has fielded K.K.Shailaja in Vadakara and Annie Raja in Wayanad while the BJP has three women candidates Shobha Surendran in Alappuzha, Nivedita Subrahmanian in Ponnani and M.L.Ashwini in Kasaragod.
Another complaint being raised against the major alliances is that they deliberately deploy women candidates in seats with the least chance of victory. “The LDF has fielded Annie Raja in Wayanad where her victory is more or less impossible. She could have been given a more winnable seat”, Ms.Ajitha said.
Another activist, M. Sulfath, said that mainstream political parties consider religious and caste factors for choosing candidates as they are vote banks. “ But no such consideration is given for women, probably because they think they can control how women vote”, she said.
