On the first day of new parliament building, Minister law and Justice Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal, tabled the “Nari shakti Vandan Adhiniyam,2023” on the floor of the house.
Indion National Congress and other opposition parties expressed their support in favour of the bill and it started the credit war among the parties. Congress said,It was first introduced by Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989, while RJD and JDU and AIMIM objected against the bill on certain grounds.
This bill will give 33% reservation of women in the parliament and state legislature by adding a clause 334A in article 334 of the constitution. It will enhance the feelings in favour of women led developement goals. This bill is called Master stroke of Modi government for the women empowerment and it will help BJP in 2024 general election.
Presently, in Loksabha there are 543 seats exist, in which 84 and 47 seats are reserved for SC and ST respectively. Out of 543 members only 82 are women while population of women in India is approximately 50%. After the enactment of this bill, the number of women in loksabha will be 181. SC and ST women will be given their seats under the already reserved 131 seats, while OBCs and minority women have no say in the reservation.
AIMIM leader, Asaduddin owaisi advocated for ‘reservation within reservation’ that is out of 181 women reserved seats, there should be some seats reserved for Minority community’s women. He argued that if government is willing to support under- represented then it should first include the Minority women in its reservation policy.
RJP and JDU also raised the issue of ‘reservation within reservation’ for OBC community women. Only on this ground RJD and JDU had raised its objection on 108th Amendment act in 2008.
Some Bahujan politics leaders are commenting that this bill is casteist in nature as it does not follow the doctrine of ‘reservation within reservation’.
This bill will come in force after 2026, delimitation exercise. It means , it will be enacted in 2029 general election. Some opposition MPs said it is just a populist measure because will be enacted after 2029 and they raised the question on government’s intent of its timing when election in 3 states is expected soon and next Year general election of Loksabha will be going.
women reservation bill is almost 3 decade pending bill and and now the time comes that it will become an act and finally it will fulfill the aspirations of crores of women .
– Written by Nikunj Malviya
