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Efforts to increase the number of women in the Indian parliament have suffered another setback, with all-party talks on Saturday failing to produce results.
The political parties were debating a suggestion from the chief election commissioner, Mr MS Gill, which would oblige each of them to reserve a certain number of places for women.
A Women's Reservations Bill that would reserve 33% of seats for women has been hanging fire in parliament for over three years.
Mr Gill said his plan would not require new legislation.
Few takers
His idea was that instead of reserving constituencies in India for women, it would be easier to amend the existing People's Representation Act to oblige political parties to reserve a certain number of tickets for women.
 Women are demanding more representation |
But the meeting between Mr Gill and India's main politicians led to no headway on this controversial subject, there were not many takers for his idea.
Public support - private opposition
The fundamental problem is that although no politician would dare to say publicly that he opposes reservations, the truth is that many politicians oppose the idea vociferously in private.
At the meeting, Mr Gill also alerted the parties to an issue he wants them to pay attention to - namely, that the delimitation of some constituencies needs revision.
He told them that with India's burgeoning population - it has crossed the one-billion mark - some constituencies have nearly three-million voters while others have only 250,000.
Mr Gill said such distortions needed to be rectified in time for future elections.
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