Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

legislation by the Parliament. The first election to the union parishad,under the new provision, was held in 1997. 40The provision provided for three reserved seats for women in theunion parishad where women members are directly elected from each ofthe three respective wards. Apart from the reserved seats women can alsocontest for any of the general seats. Previously, the process of selection ofthe women representatives was on the basis of nominations and/orindirect election. Around 12,828 women were elected as members in the1997 local level elections. A total of 20 women were also elected aschairpersons and 110 as members on general seats. 41In 2003 elections 22 women were elected as chairpersons and 12684 asmembers of the Union Parishad on reserved seats. Another 79 womenwere elected as members on general seats. 42The Upazila (subdistrict) Parishad act 2009 gives a greater role to thewomen as according to it one of the vice president posts are for women tobe elected by the people. 43IndiaIn India, there is no quota for women in the Upper or a lower house of theparliament or the state legislatures, but a 33 percent quota has beenprovided to women in the local councils.Quota for women in the local councils of the country was providedthrough a Constitutional amendment in 1992, which came into effect on24 April 1993. The amendment mandated that there will be one-thirdrepresentation for women in the local self governing institutions(panchayats) and within this one-third representation for women, thewomen from the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes will also begiven representation in proportion to their percentage in the population at40 http://www.quotaproject.org41 http://www.engenderingdemocracy.net/edg-in-action/edg-bangladesh42 www.cdrb.org43 http://dhakacourier.net/issue22/feature/doc2.htm40