Union Cabinet Clears Women Reservation Bill; Expected To Be Placed In This Parliament Session

The Union Cabinet meeting held today, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the Women Reservation Bill, according to reports. The Bill, which had been on the back burner for a long time and had been under discussion for decades, will provide 33 percent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. Ahead of today”s Cabinet meeting, several Opposition parties, including the Congress, had demanded the passage of the bill in this special session of Parliament, which is being convened from September 18 to 22.

The Women Reservation Bill is expected to be cleared in this special session of the Parliament, reports said quoting sources.

Rumors have been rampant in the last couple of weeks since the government announced a special session of Parliament would be convened in the third week of September.

Speculation arose that the government, with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, would use the parliamentary route to pass some contentious regulations, including the Uniform Civil Code, “One Nation, One Election,” and changing India”s name to Bharat.

Today, during the Cabinet meeting and even before when Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the government maintained utmost secrecy regarding the agenda of the Cabinet meeting. At this point as well, the government has not confirmed the Union Cabinet”s decision and did not hold the customary press briefing after the meeting.

Recently concluded Congress Working Committee meeting in Hyderabad has demanded that the Women’s Reservation Bill be passed during the special session. In the last few weeks, parties including Naveen Patnaik”s BJD and K Chandrasekhar Rao”s BRS have also demanded the passage of the bill in the current session.

The Parliament had discussed the Women Reservation Bill last in 2010 during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress. In that time, Rajya Sabha cleared the bill, but the Lok Sabha failed to do so.

News agency PTI quoted data and said women Members of Parliament account for less than 15 per cent of Lok Sabha strength while their representation is below 10 per cent in many state assemblies, and “in the present Lok Sabha, 78 women members were elected which account for less than 15 per cent of the total strength of 543.”