Reservation can help women to improve their economic prospects

Why in the News?

The Women Reservation Bill, 2023 was recently passed by the Parliament with a near unanimous support of all members of the Parliament, providing a third of parliamentary and assembly seats for women.

Statistics of Women representation in politics in India:

1. India has one of the lowest women’s representation in politics compared to other countries in the world.
2. The Election Commission of India reveals that women accounted for only 10.5% of all members of Parliament in 2021, lower than in sub-Saharan Africa (26%), and neighbours such as Nepal (34%) and Pakistan (20%). 

Low women’s economic engagement in India:

1. Indian women’s engagement in the labour market (the labour force participation rate) stands at 25%, which is much lower than the global average of almost 50% (as per World Bank estimates).

• Only 11 countries such as Yemen, Iran and Iraq show lower female labour force participation rates than India. 

2. Factors for the low economic engagement of women in India:
   1. The gendered division of labour within the household placing disproportionately high burden of domestic work on women.
   2. Social norms emphasise marriage rather than careers for women.
   3. Restrictions on women’s physical mobility such as absence of reliable and safe public transport infrastructure compounded by high risk of sexual violence.
   4. Though recent structural shifts away from agriculture have pushed women out of farms, absence of alternative opportunities in the non-farm sector have pushed women to drop out of the labour market entirely.
3. How political representation of women can increase women’s labour participation?

Direct benefits:

1. 1. It can make political and administrative careers for women more viable in the longer term.
   2. It will increase women participation in politics to address issues of essential public services (sanitation, education and health) which shall reduce women’s time in the drudgery of daily domestic work and enable them to take up productive work opportunities.
   3. Women leaders can voice public safety and law and order concerns better, which can potentially improve women’s physical mobility and thereby improve access to work opportunities further away from their homes.

Indirect impacts:

• 1. Reservation for women in panchayats have indicated that exposure to women political leaders weakens traditional gender stereotypes of their role in society and within the home.
  2. Greater public visibility of women creates a role model effect for younger women.
• This can increase the intrinsic value of having a girl child and thereby raising parental investments in their human capital — education, skills and health.