This was published in the print edition of Economic and Political Weekly. (Issue November 18, 2000)
I am as amused by the title of Meena Dhanda’s article, ‘Representation of Women: Should Feminists Support Quotas?’ (EPW, August 12, 2000) as I am by its content. Firstly, the title assumes that feminists in India were waiting all this while for Dhanda’s approval and clearance before they decided what stand or course of action they should take on the issue of quotas for women. Dhanda should know by now that all feminists do not support the Women’s Reservation Bill sponsored by the government (GWRB). At the same time, numerous respected feminists of India, as well as many leading non-feminist women, are endorsing, and actively supporting the Alternative Women’s Reservation Bill (AWRB) proposed by the Manushi-initiated, Forum for Democratic Reforms. Funnily enough, Dhanda’s exhortation to feminists to take a positive stand on the GWRB has come four years into the debate. Therefore, it would have been more appropriate if Dhanda had subtitled her article, ‘Why Meena Dhanda Received a Late Wake-up Call to Support the Sarkari Women’s Reservation Bill’.
Her defence of the GWRB assumes that if flag-waving feminists support the bill, it will become a sacred cause. Actually, the bill has gotten stuck in a stalemate, not for lack of feminist support but because the vast majority of women in India have not yet put their weight behind it. Dhanda, and those who agree with her, should actually be addressing themselves to this important question rather than resting content with the thought that “women from more than 40 voluntary organisations, including both rural and urban based, called for a united support for the women’s bill” (p 2975). If women’s organisations who are supporting the GWRB fail to mobilise mass electoral…