Women have no future under the existing political system

The long-pending Women's Reservation Bill, which calls for reservation of one-third of all seats in legislative bodies for women, was once more tabled before Parliament on the very last day of the Budget Session. Naturally, there could be no discussion on it at all, and the bill was promptly sent for “cold storage” to a parliamentary committee, after the media gave a lot of coverage to MPs from the SP and RJD loudly voicing their opposition to the bill. Meanwhile, women MPs from the Congress, BJP and the CPI and CPM were shown hugging each other and congratulating themselves for the “victory” of having got the bill “introduced”.

All those fighting for an end to the oppression of women, need to take a serious look at what lies behind this long drawn out state-sponsored campaign on reservation for women in legislative bodies, and what has been its impact on the women's movement.

The Women's Reservation Bill, or the 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill as it is also known, was first introduced in September 1996.  The point to note is that this bill did not emerge as a result of any significant demand put forward by the masses of Indian women or the women's movement.  However, after it was introduced by the then United Front government, the parliamentary political parties, using women's organisations affiliated to them, have tried to impose this as the number one agenda of the women's movement. Women have been urged to see this as the real road to their empowerment, and to see pressing for the passage of this bill as their most important activity.

The period of the 1980s and the early 1990s, just before the bill was introduced, was a very significant one in the development of the contemporary Indian women's movement.  There was an escalation of communal violence and state terror, criminalization of politics. These and the economic reforms that were introduced under the liberalization and privatization programmes in the early nineties, were met with militant opposition from the movement. There was an increase in the vitality of the movement in this period. There was a sharp questioning of state policies and institutions that had failed to deliver on promises of equality and justice for women, and which had in fact resulted in deterioration in the condition of women in many respects.  Women were angry and agitated over the continued oppression of the working population in the cities and villages. This period saw a coalescing of women’s forces against the rising attacks of the state on the livelihood and security of life of the people.

A particularly significant development in this period was that the call in the women’s movement to fight for political empowerment, as the means to bring about their own emancipation, was coming to the fore.  They were demanding power to decide matters that affect their lives and their families.

Our Party and mass organisations played a significant role in developing this discussion, through our intervention in the women's movement in this period. The women's movement placed the question of women’s empowerment firmly on the agenda and the demand of women for empowerment became stronger day by day.

In response, at the beginning of the nineties, the government introduced legislation to allow reservation for women in local bodies, that is, the elected panchayats, municipal corporations and boards. Many women did come forward aspiring to participate in the decision making process for their community. However very soon, the illusion of empowerment of women at the local level was broken. On the one hand, local governments have very limited power to make decisions and very little financial means to implement any community-determined programme. On the other, women had to belong to one of the established political parties to be able to stand for elections and be elected.

But the striving for political empowerment only got stronger and women did not give up on the struggle for empowerment. Once again, in order to divert this demand, the Bill for 33% reservation for women in the Parliament and state legislatures was tabled as the most “promising gift”. The state, egged on by various international agencies, took up the slogan of “empowerment” but encouraged women to find a space for themselves within the existing political structure. Leading activists were encouraged to join government committees, lobby for their specific concerns with different government departments, help in drafting nice-sounding government policies and schemes, and so on. The introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill was a part of this diversionary tactic. It was a clever move to keep attention focused on this path of finding accommodation within the status quo. It served to create an artificial division between the struggle of women and of other oppressed sections. It was also a means to cover up the crisis of legitimacy faced by the ruling class as a result of the growing repressiveness of the state, its role in fomenting communal violence and the adverse impact of the economic reforms programme on the masses of people, which had all become very apparent by the mid-1990s.

The truth is that women have no future under the present political system.  The reason for this is not the abysmally low representation of women in legislative bodies, however shocking this may seem at less than 8%. The reason is that the existing system of democracy and its political process are designed to exclude a vast majority from power. They are designed to maintain and defend an economic and social order based on ruthless exploitation and oppression of the people by a small minority of exploiters. Without addressing the need for overhauling the existing system of democracy and its political process, getting more women into the legislative bodies at any level will not lead us even one step further towards the empowerment of women. Any such move will only serve to create an illusion of women’s power, as it is the bourgeois class that will continue to exercise power. It is more a measure to stave off any challenge to the prevailing system of capitalist democracy and the stranglehold of the bourgeois political parties over the political process. With the parliamentary left parties supporting this move, it has resulted in confusion and contributed to an impasse in the movement’s struggle for political empowerment.

The women of India have not fought and sacrificed all these years just for the illusion of power. They must not run after the mirage of greater representation within this system but should instead take forward the struggle for real political power, through a fundamental and lasting change in the political system itself.. They must be in the forefront of the struggle against the anti-social offensive, in defence of rights and in the struggle to overthrow this oppressive capitalist system and replace it with socialism. It is by coming forward to set the agenda for society that women will realise their collective strength, and be able to change their conditions.