Women’s Reservation Bill tabled at Lok Sabha

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New Delhi: The Women’s Reservation Bill, that aims to reserve 33 per cent of Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women, was introduced in the Lok Sabha today during the ongoing special session of Parliament.

PM Narendra Modi pronounced September 19 a “historic day,” and requested that the opposition participate in unanimously passing the bill that has been named ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’. It is a constitution amendment bill that will reserve one third of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats for women.

“’Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ will further empower our democracy. There have been many debates in the past regarding women’s reservation… and I appeal to lawmakers to support the bill,” the Prime Minister said. If approved, the number of women MPs in the Lok Sabha will see a significant rise from the current 82 members to 181.

Government sources in the Cabinet earlier announced that the bill has been approved by PM Modi. Reportedly, the bill will be proposed for 15 years, and the reserved seats will be rotated every five years.

Highlights of the Women’s Reservation Bill:

1. A new clause in Article 239AA mandates the reservation of seats for women in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. Additionally, one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) will also be reserved for women, and one-third of the total seats filled through direct elections will be reserved for women as determined by law passed by the Parliament.

2. A new Article 330A, has been introduced, which requires the reservation of one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Lok Sabha to be allocated for women. Furthermore, one-third of the total seats filled through direct elections to the Lok Sabha must be reserved for women.

3. Another new Article, Article 332A, outlines the reservation of seats for women in every state Legislative Assembly. This provision also designates that one-third of the seats reserved for SCs and STs shall be reserved for women, along with one-third of the total seats filled through direct elections to the Legislative Assembly.

4. The newly introduced Article 334A specifies that the reservation of seats will be implemented after the delimitation process is conducted following the publication of relevant figures from the first census. The rotation of reserved seats for women will take effect after each subsequent delimitation exercise.

PM Modi, while addressing the Lok Sabha on the 75 years of Parliament, stated that the number of women representatives have been negligible, but have been significantly on the rise over the years. He said, in the past seven decades, over 7,500 parliamentarians have contributed to the proceedings of the two houses, but out of them only 600 were women.

The first Lok Sabha had 4.4 per cent women as MPs, compared to the current 15 per cent. This bill was first introduced in the year 1996 to reserve a third of the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats for women, but it was not passed.

The Rajya Sabha also passed a bill in 2010 to provide reservation for women, but it was not passed due to the lack of support of the majority from the Lok Sabha.

This bill can become a law if two-thirds majority of both the houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, pass it with the approval of a minimum of 50% of states.