Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday tabled the women's reservation bill termed as 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam' which aims to reserve 33 per cent of seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was listed for introduction in the Lower House through a supplementary list of business.
The Union Cabinet earlier approved the women's reservation bill in a meeting after the first special of Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the bill aims to expand women's participation in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. "Our democracy will be further strengthened with the bill," he added.
Addressing the house, Modi said discussion on Women's Reservation Bill happened for a long time. "During Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime Women's Reservation Bill was introduced several times but there was not enough majority to pass the Bill, and because of this this dream remained incomplete."
Today, God has given me the opportunity to take this forward, he said. "Our government is bringing a new Bill today on Women's participation in both Houses," he added.
He urged all the members of both the Houses to pass the Bill unanimously.
Women account for almost half of India's 950 million registered voters but make for only 15% of parliament and around 10% of state legislatures, pushing the world's largest democracy to the bottom of the global list on gender parity in legislatures.
The bill was officially introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996 by the UPA government. Since the last 27 years, the bill has been waiting to get approved by the Parliament.
Timeline of the Bill:
- 1996: Bill introduced in Lok Sabha by UPA government; failed to get approval in Lok Sabha, it was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee chaired by Geeta Mukherjee.
- 1996: Report by committee chaired by Geeta Mukherjee presented to lower house on December 9, 1996
- 1998: Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government re-introduces the bill
- 1999: NDA government re-introduced the bill in the 13th Lok Sabha session
- 2002: It moved the Bill again amid pandemonium in 2002
- 2003: Bill re-introduced
- 2008: UPA-I government, led by Congress, again introduces it in May 2008 but referred to a standing committee
- 2010: Passed in the House and transmitted finally to the Lok Sabha
- 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls: BJP party's election manifesto said it will pass the bill
Importance of the bill:
The bill will help to represent those who remain underrepresented.
In the present Lok Sabha, 78 women members were elected which account for less than 15 per cent of the total strength of 543.
In Rajya Sabha too, women's representation is about 14 per cent, according to the data shared by the government with Parliament last December.
Several state assemblies have less than 10 per cent women representation, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura and Puducherry.
Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi had 10-12 per cent of women MLAs, according to the government data of December 2022. Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Jharkhand led the charts with 14.44 per cent, 13.7 per cent and 12.35 per cent women MLAs, respectively.
The proportion of women MPs was just five per cent in the first Lok Sabha in 1952.
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