Women's Reservation Act will fulfil future resolutions, says PM Modi

Ahead of a special Parliament session, PM Modi termed amendments to fast-track Women's Reservation Act implementation by 2029 as a key reform and urged Opposition support

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday termed the proposed amendments to Women’s Reservation Act as one of “the greatest decisions of the 21st century.” This comes ahead of the three-day Parliament session, scheduled to begin on Thursday, to fast-track the law’s implementation by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls. He also reached out to the Opposition parties to support the move.

 

Addressing the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Sammelan’ in the national capital’s Vigyan Bhavan, the PM acknowledged the “efforts from all parties and generations” in the almost four-decade-long discussions over reserving Lok Sabha and Assembly seats for women.

 

The Prime Ministrer (PM) said the issue will not remain “a subject of this party or that party, who won, who lost, who did it, no one, all the credit is to the mothers’ power of the country, all the credit is to the Parliament of the country, all the credit is to all the political parties of India, all the credit is to all those who have been continuously working for the past three-four decades.”

 

 

“Our country’s Parliament is close to creating a new history - a new history that will realise the visions of the past; that will fulfil the resolutions of the future. A resolve for an India that is egalitarian, where social justice is not merely a slogan, but a natural part of our work culture, our decision-making process,” he said.

 

The PM said all parties unanimously passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2023, and “also unanimously emphasised that it must be implemented by 2029. “Everyone agreed that passing a law without implementing it was unacceptable. In particular, our colleagues in the Opposition strongly insisted that it must be implemented by 2029. Keeping this timeline in mind, the government has taken the Opposition’s concerns seriously,” he said, adding that the government has over the past few weeks consulted all political parties on the issue.

 

Modi said that from Presidents to PMs, wherever women have served, they have created their own legacy. While the PM did not mention her by name, Indira Gandhi has been the only woman prime minister of the country, while Pratibha Patil and Droupadi Murmu have served as presidents. “Even today, from the President to the Finance Minister, women hold key positions in our country. They have enhanced both the dignity and the pride of the nation,” the PM said. As FM, Nirmala Sitharaman has created history by tabling the most budgets.

 

The Opposition parties on Monday continued to flag the problems with the proposed amendments, especially the issue of delimitation, which could potentially be “unfair” to the southern states.

 

In an article published in The Hindu newspaper on Monday, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi said the real issue with the government’s move to bring Bills in a special sitting of Parliament this week is delimitation, not women’s reservation, and claimed that the reported delimitation proposal is “extremely dangerous” and an “assault on the Constitution itself.” Gandhi stressed that any delimitation involving an increase in the strength of the Lok Sabha must be politically, and not just arithmetically, equitable. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Congress will convene an “all-party meeting” on April 15 to deliberate on the implementation of the Women’s Reservation law, accusing the Centre of not being prepared to hold a comprehensive consultation with all stakeholders.

 

The PM said India’s Panchayati Raj institutions are an excellent example of women’s leadership. He said more than 1.4 million women are successfully working in local government bodies across India. In nearly 21 states, their participation in panchayats has reached almost 50 per cent, he said. The PM’s acknowledgement of the Panchayati Raj Act was also an attempt to reach out the Congress, government sources said. The Panchayati Raj Act, first proposed by former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and were implemented during the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government in 1993.

 

In September 2023, Parliament passed the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’, commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Act, which provided for the reservation of one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative Assemblies.

 

The provision to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was brought by amending the Constitution in 2023. Under the current law, the reservation for women would not have become enforceable before 2034, as it was tied to the completion of the delimitation exercise post 2027 Census.

 

To implement it from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, changes were needed in the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam; hence, the government is holding the special sitting to pass the amendments to the law.

 

The amendments to the Women’s Reservation Act, when passed, will ensure an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, of which 273 will be reserved for women.