The Indian parliament is busy debating a bill that will reserve 33% of the parliament seats for women. I know that we have been discriminating against women for ages now, and that our gender ratio has become lopsided over the years due to problems like female infanticide and a bias for male progeny. However I had not realized that our gender ratio is down to 67 men for 33 women!
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We are a country that loves reservations in education and employment for oppressed social groups. We started with about 27% reservations for SC/ST communities in education and public sector employment. Then we introduced additional reservations for OBC communities based on the Mandal commission recommendations. All along the quantum of reservation has been based on the overall size of the community in relation to our total population.
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That is why I am unable to understand the figure of 33%. Our lawmakers are pretty good about implementing reservations based on actual population proportions when it comes to matters that do not directly affect them. However when it comes to things like seats in the parliament, the yardstick changes all of a sudden. I don't know what the logic is for reducing the percentage from 50 (maybe 48 to be precise) to 33. However I am quite sure that the same logic can be applied to other areas of reservation as well. But who cares as long as the shoe that pinches is on the other foot?
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