Outlook Replug | Amid Women’s Reservation Bill Debate, A Look At The State Of Women In India

A special session of the Parliament has been called to deliberate on the Women’s Reservation Bill. Political pundits, and general voters of India, can’t help but notice the curious timing of this bill—with the Bengal, and Tamil Nadu elections around the corner. The curious timing of the new Delimitation Bill has also raised alarm bells for some in the Opposition, which has been a big feature in the Lok Sabha debates today. 

The Women’s Reservation Bill, passed in 2023, ensures 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. It was never enacted as the bill was tied to the census-linked delimitation and would be a reality on the ground around 2034. Source-based reports claimed the government wants to rework the above condition and pass it—along with the Delimitation Bill—before the 2029 elections. 

The government is really keen on ‘justice’ for women in terms of representation, and women in India can feel a sense of pride. But justice here is quite delayed. The bill was conceptualised in 1996, deliberated on in the subsequent years; then one form of it was passed in 2010, another avatar passed  in 2023, and now one is being considered in 2026. A full thirty years. 

But it is quite telling. The fight for women’s equality, or even for women seeking justice after any crime, can be equally tedious and long.

The Centre is claiming this Bill is a must for women’s equality which is a valid statement in isolation. However, in between the thirty years of its conceptualisation and multiple amendments, how has the state of women changed in India?

What have the women earned? Wage gap in India, according to research papers, is 34%. Every 15 minutes, one rape case is reported (reported being the key here as experts believe many don’t report due to fear and stigma). An average of 7,000 cases of dowry deaths yearly were reported between 2017 to 2022, according to NCRB. In 2024, 50,000 women were killed by a partner or family members according to the UN (globally). Women continue to report harassment on streets, discrimination in schools and workplace, and receive threats of sexual violence on a daily basis online. 

Thirty years—as long as the policy has taken so far— is a long time. Let’s consider the last five years, using Outlook covers as a short-time time machine.

In the March 11, 2023 issue titled, ‘Every Woman Is A Potential Witch’, Outlook explored the discriminatory, misogynist, fatal, and very literal practice of ‘witch hunt’ in India—even in the 21st Century, on the cusp of becoming the World’s Third Largest Economy. 

The issue discusses, ‘Dragged naked, forced to eat excreta, beaten to death. Around 3,000 women were reportedly murdered between 2000 and 2021. The actual figures are much higher. Witch hunting is a war against women, a terrifying manifestation of the oppression of women in India today’.  Women who are deemed ‘witches’ have no due process. There is no FIR or court hearings. A group, led by men, the patriarchs of the clan or the village, pronounce her to be a witch and become the judge, the jury, and the executioner in many cases.

Abhik Bhattacharya reported on how women of Jharkhand face potential lynching in many areas and are contantly under scrutiny. In reports like 'Put Your Hands In Boiling Water To Prove You Are Not A Witch', ‘The Deep Roots Of Misogyny’, and ‘When A Witch Fights Back’ the misogyny behind this brutal practice is explored in depth. 

Editor Chinki Sinha spoke with a police officer. He talked about the prevalence of witch hunting in remote parts of Chaibasa region, where villagers would walk up to the police station holding the severed head of a marked woman saying they killed a woman who brought misfortune to them. Superstition supersedes everything here, he said. “It is a different world, a different time,” he said.

Other columnists, reporters, and editors dive deep into the under-researched practice. While Medieval Europe’s witch-hunting is researched and talked about till date, the ‘witches’ and women of Bihar, Jharkhand, and other regions find no respite other than a one-off headline every few months, lost in statistics. The women without evidence die with a label of ‘witch’, while no lyncher or killer gets called a murderer. 

Hopping back in the time-machine of covers, Outlook's September 11, 2024 issue ‘Lest We Forget’ revisits a myriad of rape and sexual assault cases which ‘shock’ the nation when first reported, then get erased by the next headline. The trauma of the region lives on. The issue was, in the words of the editor, “our attempt at a ‘Herstorical’ approach, where we have tried to listen again to stories of rapes as an act of remembrance and to bring to the surface again what has been submerged.”

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya revists the RG Kar College rape case which helped many people launch political campaigns and yet the victim, her voice, got trambled under the feet of the political mob. 

Her mother has now filed her nomination as a candidate from Panihati for Bengal Election 2026. 

The issue tries to shift back to the victims erased by the 24/7 news cycles with stories like ‘In Badaun, Two Families Labour By The Tree From Which Their Daughters Hung’, ‘In Kashmir's Kunan Poshpora, An Allegation Against The Army That Refuses To Be Swept Away’, ‘Gudiya's Story: Of Dreams Lost In The Forest Trail’ and dozens others, each crime revisited shows not much changed between the years of Aruna Shanbaug to Badaun. 

Let's travel further back. June 27, 2022, in the aftermath of the infamous Johnny Depp Vs Amber Heard trial, Outlook revisited the #MeToo era in the issue titled ‘Still, I Rise.’

An entertainment industry rocked by sexual assault allegations. Story after story, Tweet after Tweet, women artists recounted the horrors of male-dominated industry exploiting them. From Tanushree Datta in Bollywood to Chinmayi Sripada in Tollywood—all the women who dared to name their harasser got banned from the industry (either directly or indirectly). An example of what happens to women elsewhere when they complain of sexual harassment. They are labelled a problem, as confessed by a journalist in one of the articles, or persuaded to ‘not ruin a man’s life’.  The issue also looked at women’s exploitation outside #MeToo circles with stories like ‘Caught In The Crosshairs: Tales Of Sexual Violence Women Face In Conflict Zones’, ‘Sex In Marriage: Criminalising Marital Rape Will Save Institution Of Marriage’, and more. 

If we come back to 2026, along with Delimitation and Women’s reservation, multiple states have either already implemented or are in the process of implementing the Uniform Civil Code. Outlook’s June 11, 2023 issue on UCC looks at demographic ignored by many in media—the women. Whether religious minority or others; sweeping changes to life and liberty rules generally do impact women disproportionately. With stories like ‘Adivasis And Uniform Civil Code: Beyond The Civil Codes’ and ‘Uniformly Diverse’, our reporters, columnists explore the real-world impact of policies made in chambers of political exclusivity.

In our issue Femme Fatale dated March 11, 2026, Outlook tries to right the wrongs done against women. ‘Killer, But Make It Beautiful: The Gendered Language of Crime Reporting’, ‘When Factual Becomes Sensational: Misogny And Titillation In Reporting Of Women Involved In Crime’ and other stories discuss how misogyny impacts news coverage. We see it every day. Rape cases are statistics. Dowry deaths are tragic but don’t raise alarms against the crimes of one gender. And yet, when women are criminals, or alleged to be, the sensationalism puts all women in one bracket and questions are raised on whether women even have a right to have rights. 

‘The Spectacle Of The Woman Accused: How Sensationalism Distracts From The Offence And Amplifies Suspicion,’, ‘The Second Assault At Hathras’ dissect the reality of crime against women in India. 

The list can go on and the issue-based time travel can continue further but one question will remain: even after passing the Women’s Reservation Bill, what of the women who will be voting these leaders into power?

The Centre seems determined to bringing ‘justice’ to women with this bill and we are no one to question the real or perceived intent behind it. But, if a similarly passionate session could be dedicated to alarmingly high gang rape cases in India or minors’ sexual assault cases, the passion for women’s rights would be a lot more believable.