Somebody rightly noted, “India is the country where one struggles to become backward”. The passage of Women Reservation Bill, 2008 in Rajyasabha has once again brought the never-ending issue of reservation at the main stage. It, henceforth, again triggered off a fresh set of debate against and for the provisions of proposed reservation but this time for the women who have been subject to living a second rung life en masse compared to their male counterparts across the class, caste, creed and religion. Reservation has often been used in India as a tool to gain temporary electoral benefits or to avoid some pending political crisis. Whatever may be the hidden motive of the government to introduce the Constitution 108^th Amendment Bill at this juncture, may be to divert the public attention from the failure of government to counter the price-rise issue, the legislation will definitely boosts the initiatives of greater and egalitarian participation of women at all spheres of public life. The proposed Bill will ensure the greater participation of Indian Women at the highest political level and will be a step forward to realize the goals and visions of Constitution Makers to have equal and just representations of all the sections of the society which our democracy was unfortunately not able to achieve even after over 60 years of Independence. In 1952, the women representation was 4.4 per cent and at present it was 8.8 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively with the fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha tally.  The proposed constitutional amendment, as said by the Union Law Minister, was the ‘only’ remedy to provide adequate representation to women. Arun Jaitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, too endorsed the Bill and the idea of rotation of seats as in a decade-and-half, every Assembly and parliamentary constituency would have been represented by a woman creating a whole new army of political workers and leaders.

The history of reservation in India commences with the demand for the separate electorates by a group of Muslim elites popularly called as Shimla Deputation led by Agha Khan. The Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909 incorporated the demand by introducing the system of separate electorates for Muslims, thus beginning the story of reservation at the constitutional level. The Communal Award (1932), announced by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald was a further step in the arena of reservation which declared the depressed classes as the minorities and they were entitled to separate electorates. Mahatma Gandhi and Congress saw this move as an attempt to further divide the Indian society, and his active protest led to the signing of Poona Pact which established reservations for the depressed classes in Central and provincial legislatures. After independence, Indian government continued with the legacy of reservation for SC/STs in legislative bodies, government services and educational institutions. The Mandal Commission (1979) sought reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in the field of public sector employment which was subsequently adopted during the 1990s. It was further elaborated with the introduction of reservation for OBCs in educational institutions. Following the recommendations of Sachar Committee and Rangnath Committee, there have been vocal demands for the reservations of Muslims in government jobs.

At the onset of our path to democracy, it was envisaged that all the sections of society would have fair and equitable representation at the highest level of decision making. In order to ensure a proper voice to Indian women, the Constitution made specific provisions guaranteeing the entitlement for special provisions to the women. In terms of reservation to women, it favoured the argument, still prevalent today, that women should be allowed to automatically get empowered and liberated from the millennia old bondages under the fresh air of democracy. When the option of automatic emancipation did not work, the government promulgated the 73^rd and 74^th Amendments to the Constitution by reserving one-third of total seats at panchayat and municipality levels in favour of women. The idea was to ensure the women having a greater participation in decision making processes at grass-root level which could further pave their upward movement to higher echelons. But our parliament was still due to give adequate representation to Indian women with a very poor single digit entry and this becomes much lower when their participation at state legislative bodies is counted. Reservation is then seen as the recourse to ensure the desired woman participation in the legislative bodies.

The Women’s Reservation Bill was first time introduced in 1996 following the recommendations by a Joint Committee headed by late MP Geeta Mukherjee. The subsequent governments at the centre promised and tried to pass this Bill but these champions (MPs) of reservation causes in government services and educational programmes who always vowed for reservations for additional groups, at higher percentage and in extended domains were reluctant to adopt the same in their own house. Surprisingly and shockingly, the most pronounced voices against the reservation came from those leaders of justice who got their grand political stature as a result of their fight for the implementation of reservation for the OBCs in government services. Un-fashioned, un-willing and postponing attitude of successive governments along with the intense opposition from a petty group of politicians did not allow the passage of the Bill to see a day despite over ten attempts to make it as an Act. Finally, the UPA government with active and open support from BJP and Left Parties succeeded to get the Bill passed through the Rajya Sabha on 9^th March, 2010.

The next hurdle is Lok Sabha where political drama is at peak. Those favouring the Bill argue that the passage of Bill will ensure to meet the long due equal participation of women in Parliament which will ultimately lead to the realization of our vision of empowered women. This will also improve our Gender Development Index till marred with lower representation of women in terms of their presence in decision making processes. If women’s reservation can boost the women participation to one-third in too conservative societies likes Pakistan and Afghanistan, then why not it to be used to increase the women’s representation at legislative level in an well-established democracy like ours. The supporters of the Bill also cited the commendable success of women’s reservation in panchayat and urban local bodies which resulted in over 1 lakh women representative at grass root level of democracy and in their contribution for the upliftment and coming out in public of women. Few, but there are some vocal opponents, have been opposing the Bill tooth-and-nail. In their view, the reservation would not actually empower the women in dire-need rather it would allow the easy access to the elitist class of women to the Parliament. They also fear the reservation as a plot to diminish the number of representatives from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities as the women from elite class would make score against the women from weaker sections if separate reservations are not provided. So they have been asking for the ‘quota within quota’. Some of the opponents also observe that it will increase the negligence of electoral representatives towards their respective constituencies as non-repetition from the same constituency will evaporate the fear of electoral reverses for non-fulfillment of their duties in their constituency. The opponents suggest for reservation in party tickets or reservation at 10-15 per cent. The Samajwadi Party chief asks for 50% of reservation for women in jobs (where he does not have a personal stake) to ensure women emancipation, but he is totally against reservation in his own bastion. They are the same leaders who came to prominence with their active and time-to-time struggle for the reservation for different groups in, but the same lot has been opposing it as a matter of life-and-death when their own parliamentary seats seem in danger.

Though the politics of support and opposition will continue, it is imperative to analyze some of the facts regarding women’s reservations in India:

• First time in India, since 1909, the reservation has been brought not as a matter of vote or political gain directly, so there has been opposition at legislative level. Our parliamentary bodies have always shown enthusiastic acceptance towards reservation, why such active opposition this time? Isn’t it due to their loosing their own seats this time?
• Reservation has always been used in India as a tactic to gain some political advantage or as to divide the opposition to the existing system rather than as a means for the welfare of downtrodden.  For example, separate electorates for Muslims (1909) by Morley-Minto Reforms to stage a counter force against the growing influence of Congress/nationalists which many see as the seed responsible for the partition of India, Mcdonald’s Communal Award (1932) to further divide Indian Society (Indian National Movement) by provisioning of separate quota for depressed classes which led to the signing of Poona Act, thus formal origin of present system of reservation in India, and seasonal political campaignings for the reservation to woo some particular community just at the time of elections, etc. The absence of dynamism and scientific implementation of reservation system made it static and stagnant. As a result, it has not benefitted the real deserving ones and the same privileged people from their respective communities have been enjoying the fruits at the cost of people suffering with poverty and penury with pitiable economic and social conditions whom the system of reservation is principally envisaged for. As Indian women just carry on the their life as per the wishes of the male of their house and their differing from their patriarchy order seem very negligible, the move is not considered as reaping electoral benefits. So, the near about absence of fear of electoral fallout of the issue, there is least political importance to the cause and strong vibrant opposition in order to not loose their own seat.
• Since Independence, we have been pursuing the ideals of ‘growth with equitable distribution’. Reservation, taxation, subsidization have been taken as the modes to distribute the fruits of growth on equitable basis. Women across the spectrum (caste, religion, race, geography..almost no matter which group) they have the subordinate status compared to their male counterpart for cultural, historical and social reasons. Most of them, still, live with the identity of a daughter, sister, wife or mother. Their independent identity, still a long journey to go. Sooner the better.
• Rabri Devi is the most beautiful example of woman emancipation. Though she does not enjoy an outlook of modern, educated, English speaking lady, but credit goes to her, as she brought up 9 kids and made them as modern as the youngsters of today world, and that too when the husband too busy with political activities. After successfully managing her households, she comes out and took the challenge/power when her husband was going through the tough times. She successfully run the governance for almost 10 years and proved, if given, Indian Woman can run the affairs and rule the patriarchal norms eqally.
• Woman emancipation is not simply providing reservation, setting up a self-help group, or establishing & promoting some small micro-enterprises, etc. The basic idea is to change the women’s outlook as a whole.They should have exclusive and inclusive growth avenues with that much exposure that a male enjoys. Their participation in their own house, own society and own country should be at the equal terms like their brethren and to achieve this, we all will have to take multi-centric initiatives ranging from trickle-down approach in form of women reservation in legislative bodies to bottoms-up approach in helping them through special recruitment drives, professional training programs, Self-Help Groups, etc.
• It is said, reservation will create only puppets not the real power in hands to the women. But we can not transform the society in a single stroke. Those who could never think of facing the society directly, they will have the chances to see it through their own eyes. The reservation at local body level elections provided a great opportunity to the women from masses to prove their credentials and the people of India witnessed the emergence of many successful women leaders at local levels who earlier never came out of their households. Their leadership also inspired and regularized other village women participating to the public forums.
• The opponents of women reservation demand separate quotas for the women of OBCs, SCs and STs and Minorities. The constitution mandates the reservation for SCs and STs only and the already reserved seats for them will provide quota accordingly to the women from these classes. There is no such reservation for OBCs in the constitutional bodies, apart from no caste-based population samples after 1930s as well as differing population percentage of OBCs in different states. The Constitution prohibits any reservation based on religion. If the reservation for OBCs and Minorities are sought, it should firstly be accorded at universal level of constitutional bodies rather than restricting it to women quota or better to say as a mean to hinder the Women’s Reservation Bill.
• UN Economic and Social Council envisaged its goal of 30% of women in positions at decision making (1995), but even after 15 years we are hovering around 10 %. Countries with poor human development records like Rwanda, Pakistan and Afghanistan could ensure 56.3, 21.3 and 27.3% women respectively in their lower houses through adoption of reservation for women. We are a well pronounced democracy, why we are lagging behind?

Reservation has been considered, so implemented, as a panacea to remove existing social inequalities. If it is there to eliminate social backwardness, why it should not be adopted to remove gender-inequality. Respect the Women who do not discriminate in bearing the pain of birth of her child irrespective of gender, and do whatever you can do to render her an equal status in our home, society and country. We need to watch what Rabri Devi tells over Women’s Reservation. Being the icon of women empowerment at the one hand whereas at another hand, the one like millions women mutely following the legacy of their husbands, she is yet to take a public stand: whether she follows the dictates of her husband by opposing the Bill or she breaks the age-old traditions and dares to differ from the patriarchy symbols by standing for the Women Reservation and Women Empowerment.

Somebody rightly noted, “India is the country where one struggles to become backward”. The passage of Women Reservation Bill, 2008 in Rajyasabha has once again brought the never-ending issue of reservation at the main stage. It, henceforth, again triggered off a fresh set of debate against and for the provisions of proposed reservation but this time for the women who have been subject to living a second rung life en masse compared to their male counterparts across the class, caste, creed and religion. Reservation has often been used in India as a tool to gain temporary electoral benefits or to avoid some pending political crisis. Whatever may be the hidden motive of the government to introduce the Constitution 108^th Amendment Bill at this juncture, may be to divert the public attention from the failure of government to counter the price-rise issue, the legislation will definitely boosts the initiatives of greater and egalitarian participation of women at all spheres of public life. The proposed Bill will ensure the greater participation of Indian Women at the highest political level and will be a step forward to realize the goals and visions of Constitution Makers to have equal and just representations of all the sections of the society which our democracy was unfortunately not able to achieve even after over 60 years of Independence. In 1952, the women representation was 4.4 per cent and at present it was 8.8 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively with the fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha tally.  The proposed constitutional amendment, as said by the Union Law Minister, was the ‘only’ remedy to provide adequate representation to women. Arun Jaitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, too endorsed the Bill and the idea of rotation of seats as in a decade-and-half, every Assembly and parliamentary constituency would have been represented by a woman creating a whole new army of political workers and leaders.

The history of reservation in India commences with the demand for the separate electorates by a group of Muslim elites popularly called as Shimla Deputation led by Agha Khan. The Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909 incorporated the demand by introducing the system of separate electorates for Muslims, thus beginning the story of reservation at the constitutional level. The Communal Award (1932), announced by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald was a further step in the arena of reservation which declared the depressed classes as the minorities and they were entitled to separate electorates. Mahatma Gandhi and Congress saw this move as an attempt to further divide the Indian society, and his active protest led to the signing of Poona Pact which established reservations for the depressed classes in Central and provincial legislatures. After independence, Indian government continued with the legacy of reservation for SC/STs in legislative bodies, government services and educational institutions. The Mandal Commission (1979) sought reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in the field of public sector employment which was subsequently adopted during the 1990s. It was further elaborated with the introduction of reservation for OBCs in educational institutions. Following the recommendations of Sachar Committee and Rangnath Committee, there have been vocal demands for the reservations of Muslims in government jobs.

At the onset of our path to democracy, it was envisaged that all the sections of society would have fair and equitable representation at the highest level of decision making. In order to ensure a proper voice to Indian women, the Constitution made specific provisions guaranteeing the entitlement for special provisions to the women. In terms of reservation to women, it favoured the argument, still prevalent today, that women should be allowed to automatically get empowered and liberated from the millennia old bondages under the fresh air of democracy. When the option of automatic emancipation did not work, the government promulgated the 73^rd and 74^th Amendments to the Constitution by reserving one-third of total seats at panchayat and municipality levels in favour of women. The idea was to ensure the women having a greater participation in decision making processes at grass-root level which could further pave their upward movement to higher echelons. But our parliament was still due to give adequate representation to Indian women with a very poor single digit entry and this becomes much lower when their participation at state legislative bodies is counted. Reservation is then seen as the recourse to ensure the desired woman participation in the legislative bodies.

The Women’s Reservation Bill was first time introduced in 1996 following the recommendations by a Joint Committee headed by late MP Geeta Mukherjee. The subsequent governments at the centre promised and tried to pass this Bill but these champions (MPs) of reservation causes in government services and educational programmes who always vowed for reservations for additional groups, at higher percentage and in extended domains were reluctant to adopt the same in their own house. Surprisingly and shockingly, the most pronounced voices against the reservation came from those leaders of justice who got their grand political stature as a result of their fight for the implementation of reservation for the OBCs in government services. Un-fashioned, un-willing and postponing attitude of successive governments along with the intense opposition from a petty group of politicians did not allow the passage of the Bill to see a day despite over ten attempts to make it as an Act. Finally, the UPA government with active and open support from BJP and Left Parties succeeded to get the Bill passed through the Rajya Sabha on 9^th March, 2010.

The next hurdle is Lok Sabha where political drama is at peak. Those favouring the Bill argue that the passage of Bill will ensure to meet the long due equal participation of women in Parliament which will ultimately lead to the realization of our vision of empowered women. This will also improve our Gender Development Index till marred with lower representation of women in terms of their presence in decision making processes. If women’s reservation can boost the women participation to one-third in too conservative societies likes Pakistan and Afghanistan, then why not it to be used to increase the women’s representation at legislative level in an well-established democracy like ours. The supporters of the Bill also cited the commendable success of women’s reservation in panchayat and urban local bodies which resulted in over 1 lakh women representative at grass root level of democracy and in their contribution for the upliftment and coming out in public of women. Few, but there are some vocal opponents, have been opposing the Bill tooth-and-nail. In their view, the reservation would not actually empower the women in dire-need rather it would allow the easy access to the elitist class of women to the Parliament. They also fear the reservation as a plot to diminish the number of representatives from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities as the women from elite class would make score against the women from weaker sections if separate reservations are not provided. So they have been asking for the ‘quota within quota’. Some of the opponents also observe that it will increase the negligence of electoral representatives towards their respective constituencies as non-repetition from the same constituency will evaporate the fear of electoral reverses for non-fulfillment of their duties in their constituency. The opponents suggest for reservation in party tickets or reservation at 10-15 per cent. The Samajwadi Party chief asks for 50% of reservation for women in jobs (where he does not have a personal stake) to ensure women emancipation, but he is totally against reservation in his own bastion. They are the same leaders who came to prominence with their active and time-to-time struggle for the reservation for different groups in, but the same lot has been opposing it as a matter of life-and-death when their own parliamentary seats seem in danger.

Though the politics of support and opposition will continue, it is imperative to analyze some of the facts regarding women’s reservations in India:

• First time in India, since 1909, the reservation has been brought not as a matter of vote or political gain directly, so there has been opposition at legislative level. Our parliamentary bodies have always shown enthusiastic acceptance towards reservation, why such active opposition this time? Isn’t it due to their loosing their own seats this time?
• Reservation has always been used in India as a tactic to gain some political advantage or as to divide the opposition to the existing system rather than as a means for the welfare of downtrodden.  For example, separate electorates for Muslims (1909) by Morley-Minto Reforms to stage a counter force against the growing influence of Congress/nationalists which many see as the seed responsible for the partition of India, Mcdonald’s Communal Award (1932) to further divide Indian Society (Indian National Movement) by provisioning of separate quota for depressed classes which led to the signing of Poona Act, thus formal origin of present system of reservation in India, and seasonal political campaignings for the reservation to woo some particular community just at the time of elections, etc. The absence of dynamism and scientific implementation of reservation system made it static and stagnant. As a result, it has not benefitted the real deserving ones and the same privileged people from their respective communities have been enjoying the fruits at the cost of people suffering with poverty and penury with pitiable economic and social conditions whom the system of reservation is principally envisaged for. As Indian women just carry on the their life as per the wishes of the male of their house and their differing from their patriarchy order seem very negligible, the move is not considered as reaping electoral benefits. So, the near about absence of fear of electoral fallout of the issue, there is least political importance to the cause and strong vibrant opposition in order to not loose their own seat.
• Since Independence, we have been pursuing the ideals of ‘growth with equitable distribution’. Reservation, taxation, subsidization have been taken as the modes to distribute the fruits of growth on equitable basis. Women across the spectrum (caste, religion, race, geography..almost no matter which group) they have the subordinate status compared to their male counterpart for cultural, historical and social reasons. Most of them, still, live with the identity of a daughter, sister, wife or mother. Their independent identity, still a long journey to go. Sooner the better.
• Rabri Devi is the most beautiful example of woman emancipation. Though she does not enjoy an outlook of modern, educated, English speaking lady, but credit goes to her, as she brought up 9 kids and made them as modern as the youngsters of today world, and that too when the husband too busy with political activities. After successfully managing her households, she comes out and took the challenge/power when her husband was going through the tough times. She successfully run the governance for almost 10 years and proved, if given, Indian Woman can run the affairs and rule the patriarchal norms eqally.
• Woman emancipation is not simply providing reservation, setting up a self-help group, or establishing & promoting some small micro-enterprises, etc. The basic idea is to change the women’s outlook as a whole.They should have exclusive and inclusive growth avenues with that much exposure that a male enjoys. Their participation in their own house, own society and own country should be at the equal terms like their brethren and to achieve this, we all will have to take multi-centric initiatives ranging from trickle-down approach in form of women reservation in legislative bodies to bottoms-up approach in helping them through special recruitment drives, professional training programmes, Self-Help Groups, etc.
• It is said, reservation will create only puppets not the real power in hands to the women. But we can not transform the society in a single stroke. Those who could never think of facing the society directly, they will have the chances to see it through their own eyes. The reservation at local body level elections provided a great opportunity to the women from masses to prove their credentials and the people of India witnessed the emergence of many successful women leaders at local levels who earlier never came out of their households. Their leadership also inspired and regularized other village women participating to the public forums.
• The opponents of women reservation demand separate quotas for the women of OBCs, SCs and STs and Minorities. The constitution mandates the reservation for SCs and STs only and the already reserved seats for them will provide quota accordingly to the women from these classes. There is no such reservation for OBCs in the constitutional bodies, apart from no caste-based population samples after 1930s as well as differing population percentage of OBCs in different states. The Constitution prohibits any reservation based on religion. If the reservation for OBCs and Minorities are sought, it should firstly be accorded at universal level of constitutional bodies rather than restricting it to women quota or better to say as a mean to hinder the Women’s Reservation Bill.
• UN Economic and Social Council envisaged its goal of 30% of women in positions at decision making (1995), but even after 15 years we are hovering around 10 %. Countries with poor human development records like Rwanda, Pakistan and Afghanistan could ensure 56.3, 21.3 and 27.3% women respectively in their lower houses through adoption of reservation for women. We are a well pronounced democracy, why we are lagging behind?

Reservation has been considered, so implemented, as a panacea to remove existing social inequalities. If it is there to eliminate social backwardness, why it should not be adopted to remove gender-inequality. Respect the Women who do not discriminate in bearing the pain of birth of her child irrespective of gender, and do whatever you can do to render her an equal status in our home, society and country. We need to watch what Rabri Devi tells over Women’s Reservation. Being the icon of women empowerment at the one hand whereas at another hand, the one like millions women mutely following the legacy of their husbands, she is yet to take a public stand: whether she follows the dictates of her husband by opposing the Bill or she breaks the age-old traditions and dares to differ from the patriarchy symbols by standing for the Women Reservation and Women Empowerment.

Alwar-Sariska belt is an exquisite place for its variety of offerings. Of course, there is Sariska National Park, which remains on top of the list of any visitor or nature lover alike. Then there are famous palaces in Alwar that everybody knows. Surrounded by rugged hills of Aravali. there are many things, which are yet to be explored. One of such place is Neelkanth Mahadev Temple situated in Tehla village, which comes under the buffer zone of Sariska National Park.

Lord Mahavir statue near the temple complex

The following route is highly recommended in order to save time and energy. If you are coming from Delhi then drive via Gurgaon- Dharuhera (Keep looking for left turn at Dharuhera)-Tijara- Kishangarh- Alwar, avoiding rush of NH-8. The entire stretch is properly divided and well built, with only state transport buses or few private vehicles to accompany.

Nearby Siliserh Lake Palace

Have a hot cup of tea here…

There is a piece of news about Sariska Natioanl Park. The park is now a properly maintained, with fixed visiting hour, i.e. 7-12 in the morning and 2-6 in the evening; no private vehicles are allowed except Tuesday & Saturday (due to Pandupole Hanuman temple), and can be visited only by authorized vehicles that are very few in numbers. So, advance booking is highly recommended.

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, Alwar, Rajasthan

It is a nationally protected monument by ASI

Excavation has revealed many secrets here…

To reach Neelkanth Mahadev Temple one has to cross Sariska National Park. Since all the construction activity is banned due to forest area, so road condition is real bad. The entire stretch from Sariska to Thana Gazi is so pathetic that one will force to drive in first gear. Then it was ok until 3-4 km and then again, till Bhangarh it is too bad. From Bhangarh, its a straight drive till Tehla village. Further the most challenging part is to cross Aravali hills as the temple is behind the hills. It could be your worst driving experience and it is strongly suggested that without a SUV one should not dare to go on this route.

Around the temple…

The temple will come as a surprise. It is like Khajuraho’s temples replica in Rajasthan. Besides tourists this place is regularly visited by four-footers.

For backward journey one could also take the route of Rajgarh that connects to Alwar. Else drive till Thana Ghazi which directly goes to NH-8.

A Youth Perspective on Contemporary Issues

This site is under construction…