-Neha Singh
New Delhi, Sept 20: This year, Ganesh Chaturthi started on a good note, from Day 2 of the special session of the Assembly taking place in the new Parliament building to the first bill introduced in the new Parliament House, the Women’s Reservation Bill.
The Women’s Reservation Bill has been named the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Bill’.
On Tuesday, this bill was brought in as soon as the proceedings started in the new Parliament House. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced this bill, and now a debate on the same is scheduled to take place in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday (September 20).
What is the Women’s Reservation Bill?
Under the Women’s Reservation Bill, 33 percent of seats will be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha, and state assemblies will be guaranteed. Women from the same community will get the benefit of a reservation on 33 percent of the seats reserved for SC-ST. In this bill, it is also proposed that women’s reserved seats will be rotated after every delimitation process. This means that the seats reserved for women will be changed. Through delimitation, Lok Sabha and Assembly seats are re-determined.
Talking about the time limit of the Women’s Reservation Act, the duration will be 15 years, i.e., this reservation will end after 15 years. After the end of this time period, this reservation can be again increased through amendment in Parliament.
This means that if this bill is passed and becomes law, then every third member of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will be a woman. But it must be noted that even if this bill is passed, it will not be applicable in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Why will this bill not be applicable in 2024 LS Elections?
To understand more about why this will not be applicable in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, one must know that women’s reservations will be implemented only after the delimitation. The next delimitation will happen only when the new census is conducted. And censuses and delimitations will be reservations only after the general elections. This makes it clear to understand that even if the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed and becomes a law, it will not be implemented in this 2024 Lok Sabha election.
One of the provisions of the new Bill says: “The provision of the Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People, the Legislative Assembly of a State, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after commencement of the Constitution (128th Amendment) Act 2023 have been published.”
If you are reading this article, then you need to know that this bill giving 33 percent reservation to women is not new. The women’s reservation bill was first introduced in 1999.
The bill has seen eight different governments who tried to push for 33 percent reservation for women candidates in both Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
Current status of female members in LS
At present, there are 78 (14.39 per cent) female members in the Lok Sabha out of the total of 542 members. Last year, the government said that the average number of women MLAs in assemblies across the nation accounts for only 8 per cent.
With the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill, both the Lok Sabha and States/UTs assemblies will see a rise in female members.
History of Women’s Reservation Bill
27 years ago,the bill was introduced by the HD Deve Gowda-led government introduced the bill in parliament for the fifth time.
It was on September 12, 1996, the bill was first taken up by Parliament for deliberation through the introduction of the Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill, 1996, in the 11th Lok Sabha. Following this, it was then referred to the Joint Committee of the two Houses of Parliament.
The report was then presented by the Committee to the Lok Sabha on December 9, 1996, but the bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 11th Lok Sabha.
Similarly, in 1998, a Constitution (84th Amendment) Bill, was introduced in the next term of the Lok Sabha, this also lapsed with dissolution of that House.
On December 23, to a Constitution (85th Amendment) Bill was introduced in the 13th Lok Sabha but was not considered due to a lack of political consensus. This bill lapsed 1999, the dissolution of that House.
On March 9, 2010, the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, was passed by Rajya Sabha, and it has been on hold ever since. It was never presented in the lower house.
It must be noted that bills introduced or passed in the Rajya Sabha do not lapse, which means the Women’s Reservation Bill is still active.
However, the bill needs to be passed in both houses.
