Govt introduces women’s

quota Bill in Lok Sabha

Opposition doubts govt intention, says elections behind move
ARCHIS MOHAN
New Delhi, 19 September
THE WAY FORWARD
> The Constitution (128th Amendment) > It would need two Houses to
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, Bill, 2023, envisages reserving one- pass it by two-thirds of those
the 128th Constitution amendment
third of the seats in Lok Sabha and present and voting, and 50% of
Bill seeking to reserve a third of the
state assemblies for women legislative assemblies
seats in the Lok Sabha and
Legislative Assemblies for women, > Women’s quota to come into effect after the next delimitation
became the first Bill the Narendra exercise, which will be conducted after the latest decennial census data
Modi government introduced in the
new Parliament building at its inau- > Census could not be conducted > Bill has a 15-year sunset clause,
gural sitting on Tuesday. in 2021 due to Covid-19 which can be extended
The Bill, which the Union
Cabinet passed on Monday and
COLOURS, CHANTS, WOMEN’S BILL A
which will be taken by the Lok
Sabha for discussion on Wednesday, CONSTITUTION: CRACK IN GLASS EDIT:
LEGISLATIVE CEILING, PARL STEPS FOR
triggered a blame game among
political parties and also there were ACTION GETS A STILL GENDER EMPOWERMENT
efforts to claim credit for it. NEW HOME P5 > UNEQUAL P5 > P7 >
The Congress accused the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of drag-
ging its feet on it and introducing it to the United Progressive Alliance the Congress of “tokenism”, alleging
now with elections in mind. Former government ensuring its passage in that it either allowed the Bill to lapse
Congress president Sonia Gandhi the Rajya Sabha in 2010. Union or had its friendly parties preventing
claimed it to be “ours”, a reference Home Minister Amit Shah accused it from being tabled. Turn to Page 3 >

FROM PAGE 1
EV sales...
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the industry began to recover
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Women...
The Opposition said the provi-
sions of the Bill ensured that it
would not be implemented
before 2034, if not even later.
The Bill envisages reserving
seats for women after the next
delimitation. The delimitation
was scheduled for 2026 but is
unlikely in the absence of the
latest census data because the
government didn’t conduct the
2021 census, attributing its
inability to the pandemic. This
effectively postpones the pro-
posed law’s implementation by
at least five years, if not more.
The Bill also has a 15-year sun-
set clause for the quota, which
can be extended, and reserves
seats for Scheduled Caste (SC)
and Scheduled Tribe (ST)
women from the seats meant
for these communities.
The Bill, like its precursor,
the 108th amendment Bill
passed by the Rajya Sabha in
2010, proposes amending
Article 239AA and inserting
Articles 330A, 332A and 334A.
The last one deals with the sun-
set clause for the reservation of
seats for SCs and STs.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, who led parliamentari-
ans from the old building — he
proposed it be named
Samvidhan Sadan — to the
new Sansad Bhavan in the
afternoon, announced in the
Lok Sabha the government’s
intention to bring women’s
reservation, pending for 27
years, as the first Bill and urged
the House to pass it unani-
mously. He also spoke of India’s
initiative highlighting women-
led development in the G20
and his government’s schemes
for women.
Union Law Minister Arjun
Ram Meghwal introduced the
Bill and pointed out that the
2010 Bill was a dead letter, ren-
dering the Congress claim
weak. It had lapsed with the
dissolution of the 15th
Lok Sabha since the Rajya
Sabha “transmitted” it to the
Lok Sabha.
While the Lok Sabha will
take up the Bill for discussion
and passage on Wednesday,
Modi hoped the Rajya Sabha
would clear it subsequently,
that is, during the five-day
special session.
The government’s eager-
ness is out of joint, the
Opposition said, because the
deadline for implementing the
Bill is at least five years away if
not 10. While most Opposition
parties, barring exceptions
such as the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP), will support the
Bill, they said they would char-
acterise the move as an election
“jumla”, or slogan, and suggest
improvements to the proposed
law. They could also highlight
the fact, as the Trinamool
Congress plans to do, that they
have a third of their seats
reserved for women. The BSP
demanded a distinct reserva-
tion for SC and ST women.
Akasa...