Women Reservation Bill

After a Long wait of 27 years Parliament Passed:

Women Reservation Bill

This Topic is related to IAS/PCS Prelims Exam Current Affairs “Women's Reservation Bill, 2023” and Mains Examination General Studies Question Paper-2 Indian Polity

September 22, 2023

In News:

  • After a long wait of 27 years, the Indian Parliament recently unanimously passed the Women's Reservation Bill.

Women's Reservation Bill, 2023

Related key points:

  • This is the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill. that introduced in the Parliament by the Government of India on September 19, 2023.
  • This bill proposes to reserve 33% seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
  • This bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on September 20, 2023.
  • 454 votes were cast in favor and only two AIMIM MPs opposed it.
  • 454 votes were cast in favor of this bill while two MPs from AIMIM party voted against it.
  • This bill was passed unanimously in the Rajya Sabha on September 21, 2023.
  • A total of 215 votes were cast in favor of this bill in the Rajya Sabha, and it was passed unanimously in this house without any opposition.
  • After this bill is passed by the Parliament, it will be known as “Nari Shakti Vandan Act”.
  • According to political analysts, this bill can be effectively implemented only after the year 2029, after the delimitation process is completed.

Features of this Bill:

  • Women will get 33% reservation in the assemblies of all the states and union territories of the country.
  • Women of the country will be able to get the reservation benefit of this bill only in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
  • Women will not get the benefit of this reservation in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council of the states.
  • There is no provision for separate reservation for SC-ST women in this bill.
  • Reservation will be available only within the SC-ST women reservation, that is, out of the seats reserved for the SC-ST category in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, only 33% of the seats will be reserved for women.
  • At present, 84 seats in the Lok Sabha are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 47 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
  • After the bill becomes law, 28 out of 84 SC seats will be reserved for SC women.
  • Similarly, out of 47 ST seats, 16 will be reserved for ST women.
  • There is no provision of reservation for women of OBC category in this bill.

Important facts related to Women's Reservation:

  • In 1957 the Balwantrai Mehta Committee recommended the establishment of elected local bodies to carry out government development programmes, while in 1977 the Ashok Mehta Committee suggested strengthening the role of Panchayati Raj as a political institution.
  • In this context, in the year 1989, the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi government first presented the Women's Reservation Bill. At that time there was a provision to reserve one-third seats for women in rural and urban local body elections. This bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, but failed in the Rajya Sabha.
  • After this, in 1992-93, Narasimha Rao's government introduced reservation for women in rural and urban local body elections. Which are currently in force as the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts.
  • The 73rd Constitutional Amendment, which came into effect from April 24, 1993, mandates one-third reservation for women in rural bodies.
  • The 74th Constitutional Amendment, which came into effect on June 1, 1993, made one-third reservation for women in urban local bodies mandatory.
  • In 1975, during Indira Gandhi's Prime Ministership, a report titled 'Towards Equality' talked about women's reservation.
  • The Women's Reservation Bill was first introduced as the 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill on 12 September 1996 by the government of HD Deve Gowda.
  • In the year 1998, in the 12th Lok Sabha, N Thambidurai, the then Law Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government, had tried to introduce this bill, but this bill could not be passed.

Status of women representatives in other countries:

  • According to PRS Legislative Research, the following countries have women representatives without any women's reservation: Sweden (46%), Norway (46%), South Africa (45%), Australia (38%), France (35%) and Germany (35%).

Significance of the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023:

  • This bill is significant because it aims to increase the representation of women in the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies of India by addressing the gender imbalance in political decision making.

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Mains Exam Question

Discuss the salient features of the Women's Reservation Bill, 2023.