Women's Reservation Bill: Wait Is Still Not Over?
Though much prolonged, the Women”s Reservation Bill enabling 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies expected to be passed by the Indian Parliament in the current special session, the said legislation seems to be in force only by 2029. Today, as part of the special session, The Women”s Reservation Bill, also called “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam” was placed before the Parliament by Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it as a “historic day.”
However, it seems that the redrawing of boundaries likely to prolong the prevailing of the bill in practice. And, the delimitation exercise will take place only after the next Census.
According to Article 82 of the Constitution, Parliament passes a delimitation act after every Census. And as per the act, the boundaries of the each state’s territorial constituencies are readjusted using the recent census data.
The census exercise, that had to be taken place in 2021, has been postponed due to covid and later due to administrative reasons, and no new date has been officially published yet. Furthermore, in the past, it took over almost 12 months to complete the pre-census process and to publish. It was only after Census, the delimitation exercise could carry out. The process in total would take assumingly, five years; “reservation would only kick in after the existing house is dissolved – presumably after its five year term ends”, The Wire reports.
In 2010, Women’s Reservation Bill, or The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, was introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha by the Manmohan Singh government. However, the Bill failed to reach in Lok Sabha and lapsed.
Regarding the passage of Bill Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “On this historic occasion in the new Parliament building, as the first proceeding of the House, the beginning of all the Parliamentarians opening gateways for women power is being done with this crucial decision. . . . ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ will further empower our democracy”.
