Women’s Reservation Bill introduced; A debate arises about the implementation timeline

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Amendment) Act, 2023 proposes to reserve “as best as practicable” one-third of the seats already reserved for people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled (SC/ST) Tribe communities.

The bill, if passed, would come into effect after “a demarcation has been undertaken for this purpose following the relevant figures for the first census after the commencement of the Act.”

Furthermore, the law will be in force for a period of fifteen years after its entry into force.

In his address to the Lok Sabha at the New Parliament House, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam will further strengthen our democracy.”

Stressing the government’s commitment to getting the bill passed and enacting a law, Modi said: “I assure all the mothers, sisters and daughters of the nation that we are committed to passing this bill into law.”

Building on the resolution of women-led development, our government today presents a major constitutional amendment bill. The objective of this bill is to expand women’s participation in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas.”

Rotation of seats reserved for women in Lok Sabha, legislative assemblies and the National Capital Territory of Delhi Assembly would come into effect after any subsequent delimitation, to be determined by Parliament, according to the bill.

The bill’s statement of objectives and reasons noted that “true empowerment” of women will require more in the decision-making process.

The statement noted that there has been a long-standing demand for higher representation of women at the state and national levels and further acknowledged that there have been several attempts to introduce women’s reservation earlier.

“The last attempt was made in 2010, when the Rajya Sabha had passed a bill for reservation for women, but the same could not be passed in the Lok Sabha,” the report said.

Seeking consensus for the Bill, the Prime Minister said: “I request and urge all colleagues in this House, as a pious, auspicious beginning is being made, that if this Bill becomes law by consensus, its power will be multiplied many times over will increase. I therefore request both Houses to adopt the bill with full consensus.”

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said that as a result of the bill, the number of women representatives in Lok Sabha would reach 181 from the current 82.

Amid claims and counterclaims over who should get the credit for the bill aimed at women empowerment, the minister said, “During Manmohan Singh’s tenure, the bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2008, instead of Lok Sabha. Congress had no intention of empowering women. The bill later lapsed after Congress left power in 2014.”

While the bill is likely to gain consensus among political parties, the opposition has begun to criticize the government for the likely delay in implementing the bill. The government has proposed to implement the bill only after a census and possible demarcation.

Jairam Ramesh, general secretary in charge of communications, Indian National Congress, described the move on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) as a betrayal of the hopes of Indian women.

“In a season full of election jumlas, this is the biggest of them all! A huge betrayal of the hopes of millions of Indian women and girls. As we had noted earlier, the Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 decennial census, making India the only country in the G20 that has failed to conduct the census. Now it says that reservation for women will come into effect only after the first decennial census which was conducted AFTER the Women’s Reservation Act became a law. When will this census take place? The bill also says that the reservation will come into effect only after the publication of the next census and subsequent delimitation exercise thereafter. Will the census and delimitation take place before the 2024 elections?,” he tweeted.

The last census was supposed to take place in 2021, but has not yet taken place.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and minister in the Delhi government Atishi alleged that the bill introduced in Parliament is aimed at fooling women.

“This is not the BJP’s women reservation bill, it is the ‘Mahila Bewakoof Banao’ bill. If we go through the provisions of the bill, we find that this bill will be implemented only after the census and delimitation are not carried out after the bill is passed. Leave in 2024, if this provision is in place, women’s reservation will not be implemented even in the 2029 elections,” she said.

Updated: Sep 19, 2023 7:03 PM IST