The Indian government introduced legislation on Tuesday, seeking to allocate 33 percent of the seats in the lower house of Parliament, known as the Lok Sabha, as well as state legislative assemblies, exclusively for women. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, or the Women’s Reservation Bill as it is referred to, was introduced by India’s Minister of Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The Women’s Reservation Bill aims to reserve 33 percent of seats not only in the Lok Sabha, but also in state legislatures and the Delhi legislative assembly. Alongside, it includes sub-reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Anglo-Indians. This legislation is a constitutional amendment bill that seeks to implement women’s reservation in parliament, State Legislatures and Deli Legislative Assembly by amending Articles 330 A, 332 A and 239 A of the Indian Constitution.
Once a delimitation process for Parliamentary constituencies is concluded, the reservation will be put into effect for a period of 15 years. Following this period, the reservation will become ineffective. The bill allows for the rotation of reserved seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly after each subsequent delimitation exercise, as determined by the Parliament. It was introduced to increase women’s representation in Parliament, as well as in state legislatures, and thus increase women’s participation as public representatives in policy making.
While introducing the bill in Parliament, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi labelled it a “historic occasion”. He stated, “We have had a lot of discussion over the women’s reservation bill for several years. But finally, yesterday in a cabinet meeting, our government approved the bill that will be introduced today.”
This move to introduce this bill comes in an effort to resurrect a bill that has been pending for over 27 years due to a lack of consensus among parties. Since 1996, numerous attempts have been made to introduce a women’s reservation bill in both the Lok Sabha and state legislatures. The most recent previous attempt occurred in 2010, when a bill for women’s reservation was passed by the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House, but it failed to pass in the Lok Sabha.