This Wednesday was a historic day for more than seven hundred million Indian women, although its effects could take years to be felt. The Lower House approved, almost unanimously, a female quota of 33% of the seats. The law will have no problem also being approved in the Indian Senate in the coming days.
However, the opposition criticizes Prime Minister Narendra Modi because the application of the law is subject to the completion of the new delimitation of electoral constituencies, as well as the latest population census. This, which is held once a decade, was suspended in 2011 due to the pandemic. With so many delays, there is no doubt that the reform will not arrive in time for the next elections, to be held between April and May 2024.
In any case, the one-third female quota will be extended to pre-existing quotas, such as those that benefit pariahs and aborigines. It will also be applied in the assemblies of each of the Indian states, which will most likely be the first to apply the reform, once it comes into force. The change could have profound effects in some states, such as those in the northeast, where female participation in politics is little more than testimonial.
The feminization of politics could help reduce the alarming level of corruption in Indian politics, according to some experts. These, however, do not consider sex quotas to be a magic wand against inequalities. In fact, it has been noted that the majority of female deputies in state assemblies are daughters or wives of deputies in the federal Parliament, reinforcing despotism.
The ruling BJP, which for years has been, by far, the party preferred by the so-called upper castes - despite the fact that Modi has broadened its base - views any system of quotas or positive discrimination with suspicion. In this case, the feminization of Parliament through the imposition of a percentage will decline fifteen years after its application.
Modi has scored a point by belling the cat of female quotas. However, he has waited until the end of his second term to promote a demand that dates back to the eighties, with the late Rajiv Gandhi, as his widow, Sonia Gandhi, has recalled. Their son and visible face of the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, has displeased Modi with both the low presence of female deputies and members of disadvantaged castes.
"The secretaries of State of these castes do not manage even 5% of the budget," criticized the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Modi's BJP spokesperson has replied that the current state secretaries belong to the class of 1992, on average, "when the Congress party ruled."
It can be added that the last two attempts to impose female quotas by the Congress Party failed due to resistance from some of its partners, first, and due to failure to obtain the support of the Upper House, second, in 2014.
India, with 15% of women in its Parliament, easily surpasses Japan, with 10% of female deputies (although the Japanese prime minister has just increased the number of female ministers to 5, a quarter of his government). However, even its Muslim neighbors Pakistan (20%) and Bangladesh (21%) surpass India in feminization of their legislative chambers. In any case, if the reform is carried out soon, India would surpass both China (25%) and the United States (29%).
Although a future feminization of the Indian Lower House will bear Modi's signature, the truth is that its balance sheet is not rosy for women. She has promoted a woman, Draupadi Murmu, ultimately of tribal origin, to the presidency of India, but her position is purely symbolic.
Meanwhile, the ministers with power in her successive governments have been very few, although she did have a Foreign Minister. But the most devastating fact is that, during its ten years of alleged modernization of the economy, the percentage of women in the labor market has decreased.
Symbolically, the 33% law, which should open a new era, has practically marked the debut, this week, of the new Indian bicameral Parliament, whose building has been built opposite the previous one, inherited from British rule and to which it dedicates some architectural nods. .
