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Competing Inequalities: The Struggle Over Reserved Legislative Seats for Women in India*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2010

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Introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill was stalled in Lok Sabha on Monday amid unprecedented scenes of snatching of papers from the Speaker and the law minister and the virtual coming to blows of members […]. As the shell shocked minister stood rooted to the spot, the member tore the papers with relish and flung them in the air provoking members from the treasury benches to storm the well. By this time, the well of the Lok Sabha looked like a veritable battle field with members from both sides preparing for a scuffle as the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1999

References

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26. Anglo-Indians also got a few nominated seats.

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32. Ibid., p. 355.

33. Ibid., p. 304. Examples in this report of the arguments for legislative reservations include the need for political empowerment of women to precede socio-economic empowerment in the Indian context, the need to compel political panies to shift strategies in candidate selection, and the value of “a body of spokesmen of the women's cause” in legislatures. See pp. 302-303.

34. Ibid., p. 304.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid., p. 354. This quotation is from Phulrenu Guha's “Political Status: Note of Dissent“.

37. Ibid., p. 357. This quotation is from Lotika Sarkar and Vina Mazumdar's “Political Status: Note of Dissent“.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid., p. 3.

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42. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, former government minister, 19 December 1996, New Delhi. Alva was appointed to the upper house of Parliament by Indira Gandhi in 1974. She later was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi as head of the women's department within the Ministry of Human Resource Development. She has also served as Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Sports and Women.

43. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, 19 December 1996, New Delhi.

44. Author's interview with Brinda Karat, women's movement leader (AIDWA), CPM (Communist Party-Marxist) political activist, 10 December 1996, New Delhi.

45. The Constitution (Eighty-First Amendment) Bill, 1996. See debates in the Lok Sabha of 13 September 1996, when MP Madhukar Sarpotdar argued as follows: “Would the skies have fallen on the nation if it [the Eighty-First Amendment Bill] had been kept pending or had been referred to a Select or Standing Committee and then, once and for all, a comprehensive Bill in this regard was brought forward? […] It should have been brought after involving every section and after proper deliberations. Today the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes have been involved but what about the people from the Other Backward Classes who have not been included in this bill?“

46. Congress MP and former government minister Margaret Alva, quoted in Nath, Meenakshi, ”Cutting Across Party Lines: Women Members of Parliament Explain Their Stand on Reservation QuotasManushi, 96 (1996), p. 11.Google Scholar

47. Author's interview with Brinda Karat, 10 December 1996, New Delhi.

48. Dunn, Dana, “Gender Inequality in Education and Employment in the Scheduled Castes and Tribes of IndiaPopulation Research and Policy Review, 12 (1993), pp. 5370CrossRefGoogle Scholar . Likewise, in spite of policies aimed at the socioeconomic uplift of the scheduled castes and tribes, the women within these groups remain “doubly disadvantaged“: “The multiplicity of social categories in India often serves to obscure the status of women in the most disadvantaged segments of the population” (p. 66).

49. Author's interview with Vimla Farooqui of the National Forum for Indian Women (NFIW), Delhi, 2 December 1996.

50. Author's interview with Brinda Karat, 10 December 1996, New Delhi.

51. Ibid.

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54. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, 19 December 1996, New Delhi.

55. Author's interview with activists, Miss Gangoli of the YWCA in Delhi, 3 December 1996, and Jotsna Chatterjee, 22 November 1996.

56. Gandhi, Maneka, “And the One Who Differs […] Maneka Gandhi on the Women's Reservation BillManushi, 96 (1996), p. 18.Google Scholar

57. BJP MP Uma Bharati, quoted in Nath, Meenakshi, “Cutting Across Party Lines: Women Members of Parliament Explain Their Stand on Reservation QuotasManushi, 96 (1996), p. 11.Google Scholar

58. Author's interview with Vimla Farooqui, Delhi, 2 December 1996.

59. Author's interview with former prime minister of India, V.P. Singh, New Delhi, 20 November 1996.

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62. Author's interview with Ram Vilas Paswan, General Secretary of the SC/ST MPs Forum, Minister of Railways, MP from Bihar, Hindu dalit Leader, Delhi, 20 December 1996.

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