After farewell to the old Parliament building, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked along with Cabinet ministers and MPs to the new Parliament building and as the discussion started, he said, “We are committed to empower the women and thus, this government will bring women’s reservation bill,” calling it as “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam” which provides 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. It was a surprise for all when the PM spoke and it was followed by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to move the amendment bill on the first sitting of the House in the new Parliament building.What does the bill say?
The, Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks to introduce three new articles and one new clause in the Constitution. 1. New clause in 239AA: Seats shall be reserved for women in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, 1/3rd of the seats reserved for SCs shall be reserved for women, 1/3rd of total number of seats to be filled by direct elections shall be reserved for women through law determined by pParliament.
2. New Article-330A: Reservation for women in Lok Sabha – 1/3rd of seats reserved for SCs and STs shall be reserved for women, 1/3rd of total seats to be filled by direct elections to the Lok Sabha shall be reserved for women.
3. New Article-332A: Reserved seats for women in every state Legislative Assembly, 1/3rd of seats reserved for SCs and STs shall be reserved for women, 1/3rd of total seats to be filled by direct elections to the LA shall be reserved for women.
4. New article-334A: Reservation shall come into effect after the delimitation is undertaken after the relevant figures for the first census have been published. Rotation of seats for women shall take effect after each subsequent exercise of delimitation. It’s indeed not the first time this bill has been moved. In the past, it has been attempted by Deve Gowda in 1996, 1998 by then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and by Manmohan Singh during UPA in 2010.