Many male MPs in most political parties, it is alleged, do not like to give up their dominance in parliament and are opposed to the passing of the women reservation Bill. While outwardly pretending to support the Bill they conspire to defeat it somehow. Those who are not even willing to abide by the self-evident truth that all men are created equal may find it even difficult to believe that all men and women are created equal!

The initial euphoria over the success of the ruling Congress in the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Leftists and the BJP in passing the Woman’s Bill for reservation of 33 per cent seats in Parliament is waning due to the realization that the ruling alliance could even lose power if allies opposed to such reservation withdraw support to the alliance.

Though hailed as a historic measure leading to far reaching social changes, it is now doubted whether Sonia Gandhi will be able to go ahead with her determination to see the Bill through in the Lok Sabha as well. The arithmetic of numbers, according to observers, are not in favour of the Congress.

In an effort to cool tempers, parleys were held among the Congress leadership and the opponents, after the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha witnessed unruly scenes

According to present indications, the Congress does not want to derail the alliance at this juncture and might try for a truce with alliance partners opposed to the Bill. It may come up in the Lok Sabha only in May. There is also a possibility, according to political observers, that the percentage of reservation might be watered down.

Opponents:
The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United) led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav respectively are the main opponents of the Bill. They aver that the Bill in its present form does not provide for separate quotas for women belonging to the SC, ST,OBC, Muslims and other minorities.

While these leaders maintain that such reservation might heavily favour women from the upper castes, it is quite possible that they feel threatened by a resurgence of women power. Even within the Congress and the BJP, there are those who are not in favour of the male bastion of parliament being thrown open to more women.

The hooliganism and histrionics that marked the introduction of the 108th Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha on March 9 is a true reflection of forces which are against change and progress. Not long ago, one of them—Mulayam Singh-- spoke against introduction of computers and English education.

There are semi-literate sections including casteists in the country, which keep battling for status quo, whenever democratic measures are taken to create a more egalitarian society. They oppose reforms intended to bring about more justice and righteousness by holding forth specious arguments.

Next to casteism, suppression of women is the other social evil that obstructs progress of this nation with half of its one billion inhabitants in fetters one way or the other. Though women are the real architects of society and the most effective tool of development as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan described them, they have long been denied their due in this nation.

Manu the ancient lawgiver considered women as the weaker sex and unworthy of freedom. Virginia Wolf, English author and feminist has held that the ‘history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.’

Even though they make up half the population, women have endured discrimination in most societies for thousands of years. In the past, women were treated as property of their husbands or fathers - they couldn't own land, they couldn't vote or go to school, and were subject to beatings and abuse and could do nothing about it.

Some progress has been made in the past century in improving their position, but many in backward regions like Bihar and UP still live without the rights to which they are entitled.

Asfemale foeticide so amply demonstrates the conspiracy against the girl child begins in the womb. She is to bear the drudgery of the households unlike the male child, bargained over dowry at the time of marriage and then subjected to the vagaries of the man she marries. If widowed she is just a bad omen and while advanced in age, often a burden for others in the home. The female of the species thus faces a journey marked by pain and suffering from birth to death.

Difficulties:
Women have a right to live in dignity, in freedom from want and fear. It is said that when we educate a man we educate an individual; but when we educate a woman, we educate a whole family and even the coming generations. Women’s suffrage pioneer of the US in the nineteenth century, Susan B. Anthony held that ‘there will never be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect law makers.’

It is important that all public spirited citizens, both men and women kept up the fight for giving equality to women. It is time that the old mind-set that ‘woman is to man as the slave to the master’ is given up.

A debate has raged over the Bill and writers recalled difficulties that plague Indian women like economic dependence on men, lack of education and the feudal structure of society. Missionaries had attempted to remedy matters by promoting education of women and campaigning against evil practices like ‘Sati’ long ago. William Carey had to face opposition even from the Hindu leaders of his time while he campaigned for abolition of ‘Sati’ (the practice of women committing suicide by jumping into the funeral pyre of their husbands).

The role of women missionaries like Ida Scudder, Edith Brown and Priscilla Winter in launching hospitals in Vellore, Ludhiana and Delhi for the health care of women in the 1800s when such facilities were almost non-existent is worth recalling.

Another prominent champion of the rights of Indian woman was Pandita Ramabai, also a poet and scholar. She has been acclaimed as a "mother of modern India." In her own time she struggled hard, as a Christian convert, to define her own identity. She remains a bold role model for all those who would work for the emancipation of women, with her efforts to rehabilitate widows and orphans.

While hoping that sooner or later the Lok Sabha will endorse reservation of seats for women, this is only the opening of the doors of opportunity for woman in a significant way. Much will depend on what impact the women will be able to make on democracy and justice in society.

In April 1993, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act came into force in states reserving 33 per cent of seats in Panchayati Raj institutions for women. This is said to have led to a silent revolution in the countryside resulting in the empowerment of women. There are several reasons why an increased role for women would lead to healthy politics and better governance. They are more in touch with realities and the day-to-day problems and would be more sensitive to issues of development. They have a greater stake in health care, education and other essential provisions like drinking water.

Women’s education in Kerala had contributed much to the improvement of the status of women and has ensured for her a life with dignity. But their counterparts in the northern states still suffer from the slavery and oppression practiced for long in the name of casteism. Changing their mindset and instilling confidence in them to work for their own emancipation would be challenging tasks.