“Women have suffered enormous difficulties for millennia because India is a patriarchal society, like most other societies. Our women are discriminated, starting in the home, in each strata of society, up to the parliament. Unequal access to education, health care, property and power is taken for granted by the unthinking and powerless majority,” he said.
“The euphoria generated by the historic event should not ignore the violent objections by a powerful minority in parliament. There is no legal mechanism to ensure women representation from Other Backward Communities (OBC), Muslims and other minorities. Fighting and winning elections cannot be achieved without adequate economic resources, political connections and wide ranging social networking,” he added. In fact, “Even though some sitting MPs and MLAs will naturally lose their seats by allotting more seats to women, [. . .] they might be compensated by having their wives, daughters and close relatives replace them, as it has happened in the past.”
In this sense, the new law is “for women of tomorrow”, those who can work as lawmakers without being manipulated by somebody else.
Mgr Albert D'Souza, archbishop of Agra and CBCI secretary general, welcomed the new law adopted by the upper house of parliament. A similar bill was adopted by the Lok Sabha 14 years ago but was voted down by the Rajya Sabha.
For Fr Paul Thelakat, spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Church and editor-in-chief of the Satyadeepam (Light of Truth) weekly, the event was also historic. However, he cautioned that two dangers lie ahead.
It is one thing, he said, for “Women to enter Parliament and the Assemblies, but it is another for them to perform as parliamentarians. If they cannot, they will be simple numbers, domesticated by men, and become their shadows. The second danger is for women in parliament and other areas to become the so-called emancipated women, which means masculine women who ape men in their emancipation.”
Indian democracy instead needs the distinct contributions of both men and women,
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