Parliament passes Women's Reservation Bill: When will it be implemented?

After years and years – 27 years to be precise – of waiting and debating, Parliament did it. On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha voted unanimously in favour of the historic Women’s Reservation Bill, clearing the legislation to now turn into a law.The Upper House of Parliament approved of the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam' – that reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women – with all 214 members voting in its favour, unlike the Lok Sabha where two of the 456 MPs present in the House had voted against it.Following the vote, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said, “A milestone in the nation’s journey towards empowering Nari Shakti! Following extensive discussion with participation of members across political parties, #RajyaSabha unanimously passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.”And it’s been a really long road to get here. The bill was originally introduced in Parliament 27 years ago by the then HD Deve Gowda government, passed by the Rajya Sabha a decade ago (bills that clear the Upper House do not lapse), and introduced by the BJP-led Centre nine years into the Narendra Modi government.However, the journey isn’t fully complete. The implementation of this Bill is still years away and the 33 per cent quotas won’t be fulfilled at least until 2029.But why, you may ask? We have the answer.All about Nari Shakti Vandan AdhiniyamThe Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, formally known as The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill 2023, introduced in the Lower House of Parliament clearly states, “as nearly as maybe, one-third (including the seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the House of People shall be reserved for women”.It proposes the same for Assemblies in the states and Delhi. And similar to the legislation that was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, it mandates that the reservation will be for a period of 15 years from the date of commencement of the Act.Also read: Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha: A look at its contentious historyThe Bill also clearly states that the implementation of the legislation would only take place after the delimitation process.It reads: “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provision of this Part or Part VIII, the provisions of the Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for women in the House of People, the Legislative Assembly of State, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after the commencement of The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill 2023 have been published, and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of 15 years from the date of such commencement.”What this means is that the implementation of women’s reservation is now tied to a fresh census and delimitation exercise and effectively postpones the actual implementation of the “historic” measure to some unspecified date in the future.Delimitation, census and women’s quotasBut what exactly is delimitation? How is it linked to the Census and how are these two activities linked to the Women’s Reservation Bill.Delimitation is the process through which boundaries of parliamentary or Assembly constituencies are drawn. As per the Constitution, the number of seats allocated to each state in the Lower House of Parliament is dependent on its population. Hence, the populous state of Uttar Pradesh sends more representatives to Lok Sabha than any other state.However, the Constitution calls for the reallocation of seats after every Census. In fact, the last such exercise was carried out after the 1971 Census and according to the Constitution 84th Amendment) Act, 2002 there is a freeze on readjustment of constituencies till the first Census after 2026.[caption id="attachment_13144222" align="alignnone" width="640"]

The demand for women's reservation in Parliament and in state Assemblies has been pending for 27 years. It was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government in 1996 but attempts to pass it have failed. File image/AFP[/caption]If the Centre wishes to redraw the constituencies sooner, Article 82 will have to be amended – a move that the southern states are against.Also read: Women's Reservation Bill: A look at women's participation in Parliament over the yearsNow, as per what the government has said, the Census will take place in 2024 and the publication of numbers will take one or two years. It will be after this that the delimitation exercise is carried out – meaning the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill won’t happen before 2029.Speaking on the same, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday while the legislation was being discussed in the Lower House, "Some people are saying on social media that don’t support the legislation now because it will not be implemented after the next elections due to the delimitation exercise. Some people are saying there is no OBC reservation or Muslim reservation so don’t support the Bill. I would say that if you don’t support the Bill, will the reservations come sooner? It will still come after 2029. Give your support, then there will be a guarantee and then whichever government comes will bring in any changes that may be needed. Let the process begin… There will be no delay. Soon after the elections, delimitation will be done, the census will be conducted and soon that day will come when a third of the seats are reserved for women in this house.”‘Nothing but EVM’While many celebrated the passage of the Bill – Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, “A defining moment in our nation's democratic journey! Congratulations to 140 crore Indians” – there have been voices of dissent over the timeline for implementation of it.After the Centre introduced the Bill in Lok Sabha, the Opposition dubbed it as “nothing but EVM – EVent Management” and a “gimmick aimed at making some noise”.Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said, “In a season of election jumlas, this one is the biggest of them all. A huge betrayal of the hopes of crores of Indian women and girls.” He said the Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 decadal Census making India the only country in G20 that has failed to carry out the Census. “Now it says that the reservation for women will come into effect only following the first decadal Census conducted after the Women’s Reservation Bill has become an Act. When will this Census take place?... Will the Census and delimitation be done before the 2024 elections?”

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Wednesday too called the Bill a sham, saying it should be renamed as "women's reservation rescheduling bill"."It actually means that in true BJP's doublespeak-style, we do not know if and actually when we will have 33 per cent women sitting in the Lok Sabha because the date of the next census is indeterminate, and the date of the delimitation exercise is doubly indeterminate.""Women's reservation is dependent on two totally indeterminate dates, can there be a greater jumla. Forget 2024, this may not be possible in 2029," she added.CPI affiliated National Federation of Indian Women also expressed concern over the lack of a fixed time-frame for implementing it.With inputs from agencies