A LANDMARK law that would reserve a third of all seats in India’s parliament for women cleared its first hurdle yesterday when members of the upper house approved it after a rancorous debate.

The bill won the backing of 186 of the 248 members of the upper Rajya Sabha chamber, more than the two-thirds majority needed for the draft legislation which would result in a constitutional change.

“The bill is a historic step, joyous step forward,” said Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. “It is celebration of our womanhood. This is a momentous development in the long journey of empowering women.”

Women currently occupy 59 seats out of 545 in the lower house and just 21 women in the 248-seat upper house.

An attempt to pass the legislation was first made in 1996 and it has been consistently blocked since by various political groups demanding quotas for women from Muslim and low-caste communities.

Communists and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) united behind the left-leaning ruling Congress party, which faced virulent and occasionally unruly resistance from regional socialist parties.

The bill was again tabled on Monday (March 8), International Women’s Day, but the socialists forced repeated adjournments and at one point ripped up the law, threw shreds of paper at the speaker and grabbed his microphone.

Seven members, who say the bill will lead to high-caste women monopolising the reserved seats, were suspended over the uproar. A parliamentary security team was deployed to keep order yesterday.

The bill will now pass to the lower house of parliament and state assembles, where a third of seats will also be reserved for women. If it clears these two stages, it will then require presidential consent.

“The law should go through,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai, who said the ruling party and its allies had majorities in the lower house and enough state assemblies to see a successful conclusion.

Brinda Karat, leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist), termed the bill a “ground-breaking” piece of legislation.

“The legislation ensures the idea of inclusion is transformed from rhetoric to guarantees,” she said, adding that 33 per cent would be enough to influence policy and decision-making.

Politics in India has traditionally been a male bastion, but women now hold prominent positions, including President Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi. India has had one female prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

Women’s rights groups were delighted with the news.

“Male politicians will soon have to make way for a fresh female energy to run the country,” said Mrinalini Das, an activist based in New Delhi.

“Today, I can say India is changing for good,” she said.

VIOLENCE against Indian students has damaged Australia’s reputation and will lead to a drop in the number of foreign students, foreign minister Stephen Smith said.

Smith said yesterday that a spate of violent attacks on Indian nationals, mostly in Melbourne, had contributed to growing questions over the integrity of Australia’s overseas education system.

“I’ve made it clear that I think on the student safety issue, our reputation and standing in India has been damaged.”

Unscrupulous educational institutions luring Indian students to Australia with the promise of the chance to remain in the country had also contributed to the damage and would cause a drop in student arrivals, he said.

Thousands of students were left stranded after a string of private colleges collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis and following revelations about dodgy operators.

“I think on the collapse of the colleges and the focus on integrity, we will see a drop in the number of Indian students coming to Australia, I think for three reasons,” said Smith.

“One, the safety issue; two, the general adverse consequences of the global financial crisis, and three, the integrity or quality issues.”

But Smith said he expected the drop in enrolments to be short-lived.

A damning government review of the $15.5bn (£10.4bn) education sector commissioned after violence against Indians, published yesterday, found some colleges catering to foreigners operated more as visa factories than education providers.

The review’s chairman, Bruce Baird, recommended a regulatory crackdown on unethical recruitment practices, including fines for deliberately misleading students.

Baird also said more needed to be done to help foreign students feel more a part of Australian life, following a spike in violent attacks against Indian students.

Foreign student numbers jumped from 228,119 in 2002 to 491,565 by 2009, with international education now Australia’s fourth largest export industry.

AN INDIAN taxi driver was remanded in custody in Melbourne today over the killing of Indian toddler Gurshan Singh, as the boy’s mother voiced her anguish at losing her “beautiful boy”.

Gursewak Dhillon, who is charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence, did not apply for bail at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court and will appear again on June 29.

Police have alleged that 23-year-old Dhillon, one of six adults who shared a Melbourne home with the Singh family, dumped the boy’s body near the city’s airport on Thursday (March 4).

Details of how the boy died have not been revealed but police have accused Dhillon of placing the alive but unconscious child in the boot of his car and driving around for three hours before disposing of the body.

Dhillon’s court appearance came as the boy’s mother, Harpreet Kaur Channa, described her heartbreak over her son’s death.

“Our son was a beautiful boy and he was very loved and he is still in the front of our eyes,” she wrote in a letter to the Herald Sun newspaper.

“Up to this point our grief has been so bad, so deep, so beyond explanation.

“We want to thank the Australian people for their support and the Victoria Police for (making an arrest) so fast.”