New Delhi: After 27 years of anticipation, the Women’s Reservation Bill has finally passed the hurdle of making it through Lok Sabha, on September 20. Now all eyes are on Rajya Sabha, as it will be taken for discussion on Thursday. Remarkably, the bill that aims to amend the Constitution to provide one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, was passed with near unanimity.
The Bill that was tabled on Tuesday at the Lok Sabha in the new Parliament building, will now wait for passage through the Rajya Sabha in the two days of the Parliament’s Special Session, and might also require approval from half of the States.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the Lok Sabha members for aiding the passing of the Bill. He took to X (formerly Twitter) and said, “I thank MPs across Party lines who voted in support of this Bill. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a historic legislation which will further boost women empowerment and will enable even greater participation of women in our political process.”
Of all the members of the Lok Sabha, who supported the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth) Bill 2023, two members have opposed the Bill. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Asaduddin Owaisi and Syed Imtiyaz Jaleel voted against the Bill. The voting process took almost two hours due to its manual nature, using paper slips and received 454 votes in favour, way above the required majority.
After the completion of the voting, Speaker Om Birla announced, “The proposal has been passed with more than two-thirds majority of the members present in the house.”
In the past, six attempts were made to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, the year 1996 being the first attempt, but never reached consensus. According to official figures, India currently has 104 Members of Parliament that are women, out of nearly 800.
