Picture : ANI / X
Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the official name of The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023. This Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 19, 2023 during thespecial session of Parliament. This legislation seeks to allocate 33 percent of the seats in the state and central legislative bodies for women. The bill was the first that was considered in the new parliament building. On September 20, 2023, Lok Sabha passed the bill with 454 votes in favour and 2 against.
While the Women’s Reservation Bill was being introduced in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed September 19 a “historic day” and urged Opposition parties to pass the bill. Highlighting the contributions of women, Modi said they played a big role in policy-making and that God had chosen him to implement the bill on women’s reservation.
#WATCH | Women’s Reservation Bill | Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, “Yesterday was a golden moment of India’s Parliamentary journey. All the members of this House deserve that golden moment…Yesterday’s decision and today when we cross the last mile after Rajya Sabha (passing… pic.twitter.com/s6mRNxPB2G
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2023
The Women’s Reservation Bill has been hanging for the last 27 years due to a lack of consensus and political will. However, this will be a new bill and not a previous bill that was passed earlier.
The historic Bill, termed as Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, will now be taken up in Rajya Sabha for passage for the remainder of the session. As a part of the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, it might require approval from half of state assemblies. Meanwhile Modi wrote on X after the Bill was passed in Lok Sabha. “I thank MPs across Party lines who voted in support of this Bill. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a historic legislation which will further boost women empowerment and will enable even greater participation of women in our political process.”
Delighted at the passage of The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha with such phenomenal support. I thank MPs across Party lines who voted in support of this Bill.
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a historic legislation which…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 20, 2023
The 128th Constitution Amendment Bill states that political reservation for women will only come into effect after the relevant census figures are published and the delimitation exercise is undertaken comprising the revision of seat numbers in Parliament and the redrawing of constituency boundaries is done. Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the House that a census will be carried out to implement the women’s reservation bill, right after the elections. He also said that the next government will carry out the delimitation soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, brushing aside the apprehensions of a delay in the bill’s implementation.
The process of delimitation entails the revision of constituency boundaries pertaining to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, with the aim of accurately reflecting increase in population distribution. To be fully ratified, the bill needs ratification from a minimum of 50% of the states. The constitutional reasoning for requiring ratification by the states is its potential impact of the bill on the rights of states.
However, some opposition parties have a different view. TMC MP Derek O’Brien in Rajya Sabha on Thursday said, “Today, the health, finance, commerce, and industry ministries are all headed by women in West Bengal but the BJP could not get a single women CM out of 16 CMs and they are preaching to us on women’s rights.”
Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav said, “I want to congratulate everyone. A historic bill has passed. But there has been a delay by the government in bringing this bill. There are only six months in the (Lok Sabha) elections. The government brought this bill looking at these 6 months and the strength of the INDIA bloc. This is absolutely political.”
Attacking Amit Shah over his remarks explaining the rationale behind the formation of a Delimitation Committee amid calls from the Opposition to implement the draft women’s quota law at the earliest, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “His (Amit Shah’s) statement was hypocritical as the BJP made an electoral commitment to women 9 years ago, in its manifesto for the 2014 (Lok Sabha) elections, to bring a women’s reservation law. Despite them (BJP) being the largest single party (in the 2014 and 2019 LS polls) and many in the Opposition raising a chorus for the Bill, it took them 9 years to bring it to fruition. It was hypocritical also because of the (contentious) clause that the implementation of the law is subject to a census and a delimitation exercise. The census has been delayed since 2021.”
#WATCH | Women’s Reservation Bill | On the Bill being brought in Rajya Sabha today, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi says, “It is delightful that it has received unanimous support across political party lines, except for AIMIM. They speak of rights but when it comes to… pic.twitter.com/6AznOElqq5
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2023
Being a democracy, there will always be an opposition to the proposition. Only time will tell how effectively and sincerely the Modi led government can bring in the implementation of the bill which seeks to bring women on a higher pedestal. Merely introducing the bill in the new building just six months before the elections should not be a lip service or vote bank politics.
