Context
Gender equality reform relies on acknowledging unpaid effort and distributing household responsibilities fairly in order to guarantee equitable growth.

The Political Representation of Women in India  
• Women's Reservation Bill: The Women's Reservation Bill, which grants women a one-third reservation in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, was recently approved by Parliament. This is a significant advancement in the direction of female equality in Indian politics.
• Global Gender Gap: With 15% of its parliament made up of women, India is currently ranked 141st out of 193 countries.
• Consensus and Moral Imperative: There is broad agreement that it is morally necessary to enhance the representation of women in politics, and the ease with which this law was approved demonstrates that there is rising agreement about the need of women's participation in government.

Potential problems and implementation roadblocks  
• Census and Delimitation: The effectiveness of the Women's Reservation Bill's implementation will be determined by the outcomes of the upcoming Census and subsequent delimitation operations.
• Legitimacy of Contingency Clause: Tying a law to a vague future event, like delimitation, raises questions that may need to be addressed by constitutional courts, further delaying the reform process.
• Societal Change: An equitable home duty split is required to solve the significant amount of unpaid work handled by women.

Building Capacity and Ensuring Reform Success  
• Recognising Unpaid Work: According to a recent study, there is a significant disparity in the amount of time spent on unpaid domestic work between men and women.
• Capacity building: As more women enter politics as a result of the reservation law, lessons from programmes like EMILYs List in the U.S. underscore the importance of mentorship, campaign guidance, and capacity-building programmes for women in politics.
• The National Commission for Women and the Parliamentary Committee on Empowering Women need to be reorganised in order to ensure that the law is effectively implemented.

LTX Mains Question
Q. Examine the impact of the recently passed Women's Reservation Bill in the context of political gender equality. What challenges must it face, and how might capacity-building initiatives and institutional changes aid its success?