New Delhi: With Women's Reservation Bill
crossing its first hurdle, India is all set to join a league
of around 40 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh,
which have quota for women in Parliaments either by means of
constitutional amendment or by changing the electoral laws.
Besides Pakistan and Bangladesh, Nepal is the third
country in the Indian subcontinent which had already reserved
seats for the fairer sex in their national assemblies.
According to Sweden-based International Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), besides the
countries which have mandated quota for women, major political
parties in more than 50 countries have voluntarily set out
quota provisions in their own statutes.
In Pakistan, 60 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly
(17.5 per cent) are reserved for women. These seats are
allocated to political parties proportionally from the
provinces, according to the electoral result.
Bangladesh had in May 2004 passed a Constitutional
amendment to re-introduce quotas for women. The number of
seats in Parliament was raised to 345, around 13 per cent
seats (45) of which are reserved for women. Nepal has 33 per
cent reservation for women.
However, India's other three neighbours -- China, Sri
Lanka and Myanmar do not have any reservation for the fairer
sex, according to the IDEA data.
Among other Asian countries, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan have 30 per cent quota for women.
Neither Kazakhstan nor Turkmenistan has a quota system
for women, but both countries strive to take the gender
balance into consideration.
In Uganda, a parliamentary seat from each of the 56
districts is reserved for women, resulting in an increase in
women's political representation. Some other women are elected
to Parliament on the non-gender specific reserved seats.
Other countries in the African continent which have
women's quota in their parliaments include Rwanda (30 per cent
in all decision-making organs), Sudan (60 seats out of 443),
and Niger (10 per cent) among others.
In Latin America, about 14 countries have constitutional
quotas for women.
Other South American countries which have legislated
quota system for women include Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay
among others.
In Europe, there are eight countries such as Portugal,
Spain and France have constitutional provisions for reserving
seats for women candidates.
Some countries, like Sweden, use the zipper system,
whereby every other candidate on the list is a woman.
Voluntary party quota are the most common types of
reservation for women that are found in 14 European countries,
including Germany and UK. Similar is the case with Australia
and several other countries in the West.
While the electoral law provides for a compulsory 30 per
cent quota for women candidates for elective posts in
Argentina, the quota is same in Brazil and it is must for
Bolivia to include at least one woman out of every three
candidates in its Lower House.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 09, 2010, 23:11