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Size does matter by Medha Nanivadekar

The July 14 all-party meeting, like all of its predecessors, failed to arrive at any consensus on the passage of the women's reservation Bill. It's high time that the supporters of the Bill realised and accepted that the proposed legislation in its present form will never be passed by the Lok Sabha and devise alternate strategies. If they really care about increasing women's representation, they must be willing to negotiate. Willingness to negotiate does not necessarily mean compromising with the cause.

For the last 15 years, the women's reservation debate has focussed on the zero-sum game of throwing 181 male MPs out of the Lok Sabha to bring 181 women in. Therefore, it failed. Now we need to shift the women's reservation discourse and link it to the need for increasing Lok Sabha's size to make it more representative. Currently, 59 out of 543 constituencies are occupied by women. Let's allow men to have these 59 consti-tuencies as well. Let's have 543 men in the Lok Sabha, but let us also bring 543 women by converting all 543 constituencies into two-member constituencies to elect one man and one woman each.

Very few of us are aware that this second most-populous country has the 13th largest parliament, smaller than the constituent assembly of neighbouring Nepal with 594 members. At the local level, we have about three million elected representatives. In state assemblies, the number comes down to only 4,120, and in the Lok Sabha, only 543. At local levels, there is one representative for an average of less than 400 people. A member of a state legislative assembly represents about 3,00,000, and a Lok Sabha member over 22.2 million.

India has the poorest representative-to-people ratio in the whole world when it comes to Parliament. In the US, where members of both houses of Congress are directly elected, there is one representative for 5,78,000 people; in Pakistan, about 5,40,000; and Bangladesh, 4,76,000. India ranks 97th on the basis of the percentage of women in Parliament, which is barely 10.8%, surpassed even by Pakistan (22.2%), Bangladesh (18.6%) and Nepal (33%).

The poorest MP-to-people ratio and a very low percentage of women in Parliament together pose a serious challenge to the legitimacy of Indian democracy. We can resolve both issues simply by linking them. The first Lok Sabha had 489 elected MPs and the 15th Lok Sabha has 543. Since Independence, India's population has increased over 3.35 times, but there has been only a 12% increase in Lok Sabha seats. Percentage of women in Parliament is a major indicator in the Millennium Development Goals, on which India has fared badly in spite of its one-third quotas for women in local government.

By converting all Lok Sabha and legislative assembly consti-tuencies into dual-member constituencies, to elect one man and one woman, we can ensure equal gender representation at the state and national level. This would elevate India's rank from 97th to number two, second only to Rwanda. It is easier to switch to dual-member constituencies without changing the geographical boundaries of existing consti-tuencies. This honours the spirit underlying the constitutional embargo on increasing the consti-tuencies before 2026 as well.

Eyebrows will be raised at the huge number of 1,090 for the new Lok Sabha. But if this is a huge number, what would one say about the 2,987-strong Chinese parliament? Or about 707 members in the UK House of Commons, in the year 1918? For a polity of 1.21 billion citizens, it is but natural to have a huge Parliament. Where would they sit? Pending other arrangements, the Lok Sabha may occupy the Central Hall, which is used for joint sessions of the two houses.

Anyway, lack of adequate chairs has never been a deterrent for proper functioning in the British House of Commons that has only 437 chairs for 650 members. Information and communication technologies can help in addressing most of the concerns over the enlarged Lok Sabha. In the end, nothing can justify less than equal share of women at any level of power in any form.

In 1972, Rein Taagepera, a noted political scientist, observed that parliaments the world over tend to be the size of the cube root of the country's population. This ensures that a member of parliament is adequately accessible to each citizen. Currently, the cube root of the Indian population stands at 1,065. By implementing the win-win formula, we would have a Lok Sabha with 1,090 members, which is only 2% more that the cube root. It would still be far better than the current deficit of 96% MPs. This would also double parliamentary expenditure, but if our less developed neighbours like Pakistan and Bangladesh can afford to have one representative for about half a million people, then India needs to invest far more to affirm its democratic credentials.

The win-win formula can do away with rotational reservation and establish women as equal partners in power at the highest level. Such a large number of women exercising equal power at the highest level would gradually change society's perception about women and women's perceptions of themselves. India can play a historic role by using democracy to transform patriarchy. Equal partnership of men and women in the public sphere would also transform hierarchical gender relations in the private sphere and reduce women's vulnerability to gender-based violence and discrimination.

The writer is fellow, National Endowment for Democracy, Washington DC.