From women’s reservation to gender equality
The HinduLast week, Parliament passed the women’s reservation Bill, which provides one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies. It is now well understood that higher education among girls, increased female labour force participation, and greater financial autonomy among women directly correlate with lower fertility rates. Representation of women to elected bodies must necessarily be seen in the larger context of female labour force participation in India, which is abysmal by any standards. Recent research from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Time Use Survey shows that for 97 minutes spent daily by men on unpaid domestic services for household members, women spend 299 minutes. Substantive justice Nevertheless, when the proportion of women in higher elected bodies increases in accordance with the present law, questions still remain with regard to building capacity for first-time representatives.