On the other hand coming to the fulcrum – as far as the bill itself is considered, it is not an astute one for sure. If women empowerment is desired, constitutional amendments offering seats to women in parliament is not the way to go. This idea is so shallow that it is not going to do any good contrary to popular expectations.

The bill would permit proxy representation but that is just one of the drawbacks. The 33 per cent reservation actually amounts to discrimination and to look at this the other way round, this itself is gender disparity and leads to thinking that women are not capable of competing general seats. Reservation of seats in buses is not the same as reserving parliament seats.

The high school drop outs for girls is a concern to be addressed. The reservation at panchayat level has shown positive results but that should not be the trailblazer for parliamentary reservation. For female empowerment there is a need to curb domestic violence, there are growing needs to execute tougher laws in favor of women, valika badhu-ism, which is very much prevalent even today needs to eradicated and many such hitches should be addressed first.

The political participation of women is certainly desired and to accomplish that, the quota should rather be applied to parties wherein all political parties would be required to have about 40 per cent female candidates as the minimum. That would consequently, and in a better way, assure women empowerment. The means and not the end should be wise, as Gandhi had remarked…