NEW DELHI, 19 Sep: The government on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving a bill pending for 27 years for want of consensus among parties.
Making it the first bill to be introduced in the new Parliament building, the government said that it will enable greater participation of women in policymaking at the state and national levels and help achieve the goal of making India a developed country by 2047.
The bill is to be named Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.
With several parties pushing for reservation of women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the bill is likely to see a smooth passage this time, unlike the earlier instances when several regional parties had opposed it.
However, its implementation may still take some time and is unlikely to be in force
for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024, as the reservation will come into effect only after a delimitation exercise is completed.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the union cabinet approved the bill on Monday, and that the government wants more and more women to join the development process of the country.
The world has recognised the women-led development process in the country and is witnessing contribution made by Indian women in different aspects of life, from sports to startups, the prime minister said.
The bill has proposed that the reservation would continue for a period of 15 years and there will be a quota for SC/STs within the reserved seats for women.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was listed for introduction in the Lower House through a supplementary list of business.
The reservation will come into effect after a delimitation exercise is undertaken, and will continue for 15 years. Seats reserved for women will be rotated after each delimitation exercise, according to the bill.
The government said that women participate substantively in panchayats and at municipal bodies, but their representation in state assemblies and the Parliament is still limited.
Women bring different perspectives and enrich quality of legislative debates and decision-making, it added.
There have been several efforts to introduce women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies since 1996. The last such attempt was made in 2010, when the Rajya Sabha had passed a bill for women’s reservation, but the same could not be passed in the Lok Sabha.
Data shows that women MPs account for nearly 15 per cent of Lok Sabha strength, while their representation is below 10 per cent in many state assemblies.
Cong dubs bill ‘election jumla’
Meanwhile, the Congress has termed the women’s reservation bill an “election jumla” and a “huge betrayal of hopes of women,” noting that the Centre has stated that the reservation will be effective only after a census and delimitation exercise is conducted post-enactment of the bill.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wondered whether the census and delimitation will be done before the 2024 elections, pointing out that the Narendra Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 decadal census.
In a post on X, Ramesh said, “In a season of election jumlas, this one is the biggest of them all! A huge betrayal of the hopes of crores of Indian women and girls.”
“As we had pointed out earlier, Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 decadal census, making India the only country in G20 that has failed to carry out the census. Now it says that the reservation for women will come into effect only following the first decadal census conducted AFTER the Women’s Reservation Bill has become an Act. When will this Census take place?” Ramesh said.
The bill also says that the reservation comes into effect only after the publication of the next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise thereafter, he pointed out.
“Basically the bill gets the headlines today with a very vague promise of its implementation date. This is nothing but EVM – event management,” he said. (PTI)
