The bill will pave the way for many fresh candidates into electoral politics
The Womens Reservation Bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats (both general as well as those already reserved for SCs and STs) for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies for a period of 15 years.
When this passes, two-thirds of all the candidates in any election will become ineligible for the next one. As a result, every election will see two-third of the contestants being knocked over by design: one-third will be knocked over because their seat will become reserved for women and another one-third, all women, from seats which will cease to be reserved.(This story appears in the 02 April, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)