For quite some time, the demand for reserving 33% of the seats of the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas for the women is being raised from some circles. It is argued that this is a step towards empowerment of womanhood. Considerable discussions and deliberations on this have been going on in the pages of newspapers and journals as well. But it is intriguing to find that the capitalist class, the media controlled by it and the political parties subservient to it like the Congress and the BJP who are not at all bothered about the barest minimum for subsistence of over 90 % of the population, the toiling millions, are all very vocal on this question of reservation. It is also a fact that the CPI(M), the CPI and their associate parties too have joined them in the chorus on this question. The ousted BJP government, with the support of the then parties in Opposition like the Congress, the CPI(M), and the CPI, made several attempts to get the Women Reservation Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. But it could not be passed because of differences on the questions of percentage of seats to be reserved and the provision for special reservation along caste lines within the total percentage of reservation. The Congress and the BJP, along with the CPI(M) and the CPI, are sparing no efforts to get the Bill passed. The newly installed Congress-led government has once again declared its intention to get the Bill passed. Naturally, in the minds of many, including a large section of the women a sense of hope and aspiration has also been generated. An impression is sought to be created among the women — neglected, tortured, oppressed and smarting under capitalist and patriarchal exploitations, that their problems would be considerably mitigated if the proposed measure is adopted. In this situation, it has become extremely necessary to deliberate upon all aspects of the proposed measure of reserving a quota of seats for the women in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha.



Women’s problems stem from the socio-economic condition

It goes without saying that the problems of women arise from the problems of the particular country, society they live in, and so if viewed in isolation from the social perspective their problems cannot be scientifically analyzed, the actual nature of the problems cannot be understood and the correct solutions cannot be found out. So, to understand the character of the problems of Indian women, different aspects of the present capitalist economic and political system of India would have to be examined.

Everybody knows that after independence a capitalist state and a capitalist economic system were established in India and a social-cultural framework suited and conducive to these has been built up in post-independent India. In this system, it is the ruling capitalist class that possesses all economic power. The political power is also concentrated in the hands of the capitalist class. 95 % of the people of the country, irrespective of their gender, do not enjoy any political power in the true sense. Despite some rights on paper, talks about democracy, equality, fraternity on the surface and holding of the election spectacle at definite intervals of time, these have no value in the lives of 95 % of the population, irrespective of gender. These rights conferred on them with so much trumpeting have no effectiveness in changing their poverty-stricken existence, their fast deteriorating condition. The ruling class and its agents try to create illusion among the exploited masses by a grand show of such “rights” devoid of any substance in order to both nip in the bud the possibility of an organized, revolutionary movement of 95 % of the population oppressed and suppressed under the grinding wheel of capitalist state machine, as well as to protect the exploitative capitalist state machine from being overthrown. Viewed from this angle, these serve as the safeguards of the capitalist class in practice on the one hand, while on the other, by deceiving the exploited masses, they hide from them the truth that in reality they have no political rights under capitalism. Unmasking this nefarious and deceitful conduct of the capitalist class, Lenin repeatedly said that although they make a loud noise about the democracy and the rights under the capitalist system, the point that must be grasped is that in a class-divided society, in the context of conflicting class interests of the exploiters and the exploited, the concept of democracy cannot be the same for all classes; the democracy and the rights of the exploiters can never be the same as the democracy and the rights of the exploited. It is in this sense that democracy and rights have class character. Exposing their hypocrisy, he raised the question: Democracy for which class, against which class? He stressed that those who talk about “democracy for all, rights for the whole people” sidetracking this question, are either utterly ignorant, or else cunning, seasoned agents of the capitalist class, subservient to it and protectors of its interest.



Manipulations galore in bourgeois parliamentary elections

Such being the condition, it is not difficult to understand that in a capitalist system, simply winning elections or getting elected does not mean anything as real power lies elsewhere. Secondly, it is also true that although elections may be held from time to time under this system, true representatives of the exploited masses can never get elected in significant numbers in such elections. Election results are swayed in favour of the capitalist class through clever ploys and stratagems, use of money power, concerted, all-out propaganda by the media controlled by monopoly capital, indiscriminate use of muscle power to intimidate and terrorize the common people, confusing and deluding them by raising the issues of religion, community and caste or race, and if necessary, even naked or clandestine all-out rigging, shedding all pretence of democracy. Conduction of elections in such manner has been the hallmark of all capitalist countries including our, and it is in this way that this or that party of the ruling capitalist class is coming to power. This is clear as daylight today. The capitalist class of the country totally and indisputably controls the elections, not only in India but in all capitalist countries of the world. Most of those elected are wedded to and controlled by this or that industrial house or monopoly group. It is known to all that these so-called elected representatives of the people are utterly powerless to cross the limits set by big business and monopoly capital. In such a condition, even if one or two real representatives of the exploited masses, that is, one or two candidates of the revolutionary party of the proletariat come out victorious in the election by overcoming all obstacles put up by the capitalist class, they are unable to do anything to even somewhat mitigate the intensity of exploitation on the people, because the government that is formed through such elections is deeply wedded to the capitalist class; what is more, in a capitalist system, exploitation by the capitalist class can never get lessened, it only intensifies more and more - such is the system. So, those few genuine people’s elected representatives, if they are really imbued with revolutionary ideology, can do only one thing and that is they can to some extent, portray the heart-rending picture of the merciless oppression of all downtrodden people irrespective of community, caste, creed, language or gender, and raise their legitimate demands inside the legislature and simultaneously reveal to the people the real character of the ruthless exploitation of the capitalist class. If a legitimate movement of the exploited crystallizes, they can project its voice inside the legislature, and any elected representative imbued with revolutionary ideology, whether a man or a woman, can do this. That the elected revolutionaries, if they are men, would speak about only the oppressed men, or if the elected revolutionaries are women, they would solely focus on the destitution of the oppressed women is, it goes without saying, something inconceivable. Such unrealistic, unscientific thinking is beyond imagination. On the other hand, it is futile to expect that the women members elected as representatives of a party serving the interest of the capitalist class would ever highlight the cause of the exploited, humiliated and tortured, oppressed women. So if the genuine proletarian class outlook dawns upon someone in search of truth, one would find that so long as this capitalist order is in vogue and the patriarchal domination continuing in our society under this capitalist system in the interest and with the patronage of the capitalist class, there can be no end, not even slightest amelioration of the plight and exploitation of the women just by earmarking 33% of the seats for women legislators or even raising the quota to 50% since women constitute half of the total population. The elected women from this or that party serving the interest of the capitalist class would serve the capitalist class just as obediently as their male counterparts in the legislature. This is what is being daily observed in the parliamentary politics of the whole capitalist world.



Moribund capitalism - root of all evils

The second aspect to be considered is that in capitalist India, the basic factor hindering development of the womenfolk and as such acting as the basic cause of all their burning problems, is the lack of their economic freedom, the denial of even the minimum opportunity for them to earn a livelihood freely, without which all high sounding rights stand meaningless. It is known to all, that it is this economic freedom that is the determinant of all other freedoms and rights. No right can be established in its absence. The rights conferred on the women in writing or verbally in this capitalist system are all bereft of their essence. In the moribund capitalist system of today, there is no further scope of any industrial development to generate more employment. Under this system, not to speak of creation of new employment opportunities, even the existing opportunities are fast getting squeezed. It is not because of the unwillingness of any individual or group of individuals but due to the inexorable law of the capitalist production process. So practically no opportunity exists today for providing employment to the women constituting half of the population, making secure their economic freedom. But it is clear that this is not possible under the capitalist system. Not to speak of a permanent solution, there are no efforts to even partially fulfill this urgent need. It is well known that the key to emancipation of women from capitalist exploitation and terrible patriarchal oppression by society under capitalism lies in abolition of the capitalist system, the urge for which is gaining ground throughout the world.



Votaries of reservation — mute spectators to assault on women

Another important point to note here is that as regards the fast increasing incidence of molestation and torture of women, there seems to be no concern amongst those who are champions of women’s reservation. Political parties which are so vocal for the demand for providing reservation to the women, are all conspicuously silent on this question though they run the governments at the Centre or in the states. Not to speak of building up a powerful social movement to put an end to oppression of women, they are making no efforts to adopt adequate legal measures, or even to strictly enforce the existing laws to alleviate the miseries of the female populace. And it is they who are overflowing with sympathy for the womenfolk and are so eager to provide seat-reservation to them! What can this be called except a mockery? But it is more than that. It reflects an evil design on their part to misdirect the growing awareness among the women about the right course of action to remedy their burning problems, taking the form of a movement. Improving their election prospects is also the immediate object of these parties’ demand for seat reservation.

In this backdrop, it is clear that even if the women are elected in large numbers to the legislature, there would be no end to the growing miseries and ever increasing onslaughts in various social spheres afflicting the life and livelihood of the women. Obscene display of bare woman’s body now having been converted into a commodity of the capitalist market would continue unabated despite its being so humiliating, so outrageous to the dignity of women. Only a united conscious democratic movement of the right-thinking people, irrespective of their gender, can resist such pernicious acts by the vested interests to commercially exploit the physique of women.



Women no inferior to men

At the same time, to uphold the cause of the oppressed and suppressed people it is also highly desirable that both men and women deeply committed to the cause of exploited have nots, enter the legislatures in greater numbers and there ought not to be any numerical limit to the election of women legislators. It has been seen both in our country, as well as other countries, that whatever little opportunity for development the women got, they seized it, overcoming all hurdles and obstructions and proved that they were not inferior to men in any way. Given the proper opportunity women can achieve everything that the men can do. If this is properly realized, the issue can and should be viewed from another angle also. So far men could enjoy the right of constituting even 100% of the membership of the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha - yet legally there is no bar for women to have the same right. If we presume that people can, to a large extent, ensure free and fair election, in that situation under the given condition the male candidates can, based on their character, competence and enjoying the whole-hearted support of the people, and without being protected by any ‘reservation policy’, get elected not only in a few but all seats by securing the votes of both male and female electorates. Then why would not a time come when on the same considerations women candidates may be chosen by the electorate in ever growing numbers? May be this is not happening today but can such a possibility be ruled out in future? Particularly when female candidates are winning elections with the support of both male and female voters, and are even making it to the highest position in government and State - is there any way that such an eventuality can be dismissed altogether? In view of this, to arbitrarily limit the number of women candidates will bar this future prospect by creating a cleavage between men and women. Although we revolutionaries believe in this profoundly, we know that those who are talking about reserving 33 % of the seats for the women will feel outraged on hearing this because their secret motive gets exposed thereby. So, why is it being attempted to restrict the women to 33 %? Why, while speaking about equality of men and women, in reality it is being attempted, by alluring the women in this way, to make them unequal, to lower them into the status of weak, second class citizens?



Protagonists of reservation themselves do not nominate 33% women

We are of the firm view that simple increase of women representatives in the legislatures having allegiance to bourgeois parties will in no way help effectively confronting their problems. Yet viewing the issue from another angle we would like to raise another pertinent question. If the proponents of 33 per cent reservation are so keen, why are they not, irrespective of whether the proposed reservation is granted or not, maintaining the said percentage in their nomination of candidates? What prevents them from ensuring that 33 percent of their nominees are women? It would go a long way in increasing the number of elected female representatives in legislatures. This exposes their real motive. They are not at all sincere about getting the bill enacted. Each of them is trying to best conceal its own deceptive postures by holding others guilty of default so as to harvest election gains. The real motive is to misdirect and obstruct the movement for women’s emancipation that is developing fast.



Overthrow of capitalism — only course to women’s emancipation

We have said earlier that the urgent demand for emancipation of the women from the male dominated society is inextricably linked up with achieving emancipation from the capitalist system. Therefore, in order to ensure success of the women’s emancipation movement, getting involved in antagonistic contradiction with the male segment of the exploited masses should be avoided under any circumstances. The movement should be conducted in such a way that firmer unity and greater harmony with the male population can be simultaneously developed in jointly building up the struggle against capitalism. No doubt, the women are oppressed in the male-dominated society. But there are no two opinions about the point that no particular male individual can be held responsible for this, since the oppression is stemming from an impersonal system. The ruling capitalist class, afraid of revolution, is trying to keep the women, constituting half of the population, away from the revolutionary movement by all possible means. So, it has been trying to keep the women backward at any cost, by cultivating revivalism to keep alive blind faith and age-old superstition in them and through enlisting the support of the males in this heinous work by cunningly spreading anti-women malice. In such a situation, women will have to be conscious about securing the support of men as a very necessary precondition for success of women’s liberation movement; they will have to forge fighting unity with the men by joining them in the movements on the burning problems in people’s life. Just as the toiling masses of all sections irrespective of caste, creed and language would have to avoid doing anything that might cause a rift in their fighting solidarity to build up united movement against the exploitation and rule of the capitalist class, so also the womenfolk would have to shun indulging in any such thing that could hinder the forging of fighting unity with the menfolk. There is no doubt that the proposed measure for seat reservation for women that the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties have brought forward would seriously impede the process of forging this unity and that is what the bourgeois parties are after. So, the struggling women must realize this damaging consequence of the proposed measure and foil this conspiracy at any cost.



Reservation causes cleavage among people

In this connection, another important point should be taken into consideration. In any society that is undivided, indivisible on the basis of gender, any reservation measure, by its very character, is bound to create cleavage. So, the adoption of any such measure is not at all desirable from the perspective of the interest of the united movement of the exploited masses for emancipation unless and until there is an overriding necessity for certain genuine reasons, and only on condition that it would in no way counter-pose the cause of united movement. All are aware that when the freedom movement against British imperialism was rapidly gaining strength in this country, the imperialist rulers, in a bid to scuttle it, instituted two separate electorates for the Hindus and the Muslims in order to drive a wedge between the two main communities of the country. Naturally the freedom fighters repudiated this British conspiracy.

Secondly, take the case of the policy of reservation on the basis of castes. Before independence, the exploitation of and oppression on the so-called low-caste poor Hindus by the so-called high-caste Hindus had reached such a level that it had become difficult to unite the two against the exploitation and rule of British imperialism. The national bourgeois class that was leading the freedom movement through the Indian National Congress, because of its fear-complex of working class revolution, made no effort to unite the Hindus of these two categories through a socio-cultural movement. Rather it tried to keep alive the ground of dichotomy between the two. In post-independence India, in view of the caste-enmity and the extremely backward condition of the Dalits, reservation for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was adopted in the spheres of election and employment, viewing it as a short-term measure. The conscientious persons believing in the unity of all people and democratic sense of values, correctly realized the pernicious effect of the measure but accepted it as a short-term measure, taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances prevailing at that time. It was their hope that after bringing about tangible improvement in the life of the Dalit masses within the shortest possible time, it would come to an end. Even those who were protagonists of this reservation policy were unanimous in holding that it would not be right to perpetuate the reservation policy in the very interest of all-round development of the Dalit masses themselves. People of all sections would have to step forward in unison and struggle to advance towards an improved condition. This process was sure to be obstructed if reservation assumed a permanent form.



In joining struggle for social change lies dignity and honour of women

But subsequently the bourgeois political parties who rode to governmental power in succession did nothing to initiate the process of doing away with the reservation system. On the contrary, they took every initiative to extend the sphere of such reservation solely to create their respective “vote-banks”. This inevitably led to fratricidal clashes and bloodbath among the Dalits and non-Dalits. This evil motive and deceitful conduct of theirs are no longer unknown to any one. Today, when these bourgeois parties are brandishing the gift of reservation of seats for the women in the legislatures, the womenfolk must be alert about the devastating consequence of the proposed measure. They should also bear in mind another important point: the nature of contradiction between the women and the men is not similar to that existing between so-called high and low caste people. There has been no reflection of this contradiction in the matter of nominating capable women candidates for election. In many instances, deserving women candidates have come out victorious with the support of male voters without facing any discrimination based on gender bias.

On the question of seat reservation, the women have to consider all these aspects and understand that this move is dictated by the overriding interest of the ruling capitalist class and its servitors to widen the disparity and division between men and women. This clearly would open up the path for some women mainly from the affluent segment to enter the legislature as representatives of some political parties serving bourgeois class interest, but the essential task of making the women politically conscious, free them from the bondage of household work, as far as possible, and then nominate them in larger number as candidates for election and through this, ensure formidable presence of women in the legislature, would remain incomplete. The mentality of showing generosity towards the women by adopting the measure of seat reservation for them, considering them to be weak, has to be discarded. And the women having self-respect and dignity would have to contemptuously reject this proposal for seat reservation springing from an attitude of condescension.

In order to secure their rightful place in the society, women must come forward and engage themselves in building up a powerful democratic movement along with the men, move shoulder to shoulder with the male populace in organizing both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle and in the process achieve equality with the men in all spheres.