Modi wrests women quota bill pivot to end 27-yr wait
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 19: First attempted in 1996 by the Deve Gowda-led government at the Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally in his 10th year of the tenure has wrested the initiative to move path-breaking women reservation bill in parliament. The legislative proposal – The Constitution (One-Hundred and Twenty Eighth) Amendment, Bill 2023 — was finally introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The Bill seeks to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies for women with corresponding quota for the women belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The bill will also apply on Delhi Assembly, with a special provision inserted in the proposed legislative proposal.
The bill also states that the provisions of the proposal will not affect the existing assemblies until they are dissolved. Thus, the bill, which is set for passage in both the Houses of parliament, will come inforce from the next elections, for the Lok Sabha and each assembly.
Modi argued in his inaugural speech in the new parliament that the time has come for the country for ride on a women-led development. He stressed that the moment is most opportune to empower the women further by the unanimous passage of the Women Reservation Bill, which has been named ‘Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam’.
Incidentally, the legislative action to reserve seats for women in the elected bodies was first piloted by Gowda and afterwards by late Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998, 1999) and Manmohan Singh (2008). The Constitution (108th) Amendment Bill brought by the Manmohan Singh-led government was passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Congress MPs on Tuesday argued that the bill was still alive to which Speaker Om Birla ruled that since the legislative proposal after being passed by the Rajya Sabha had become the property of the lower House of parliament that lapsed after the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.
The participation of women in the elected bodies remains abysmal. The women members constitute roughly 14 per cent in the Lok Sabha. The state Assemblies fare far worse with single digit members from the women in many of the houses. Ironically, the political parties have not even been giving tickets to more than 10 per cent in the Assembly elections, as seen in the case of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Gujarat and other states recently.
In the case of Delhi Assembly with 70 members, there are just eight women legislators, translating to a share of little over 10 per cent. Nagaland got the lone woman MLA on this year.