- Rajya Sabha passes bill with 215 members voting in favour
- It will come into effect after the delimitation and redrawing of constituencies, which may not happen before the 2029 elections
NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, SEPT 21
A landmark bill to ensure reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies has got the parliament’s approval with Rajya Sabha passing it with a voice vote on Thursday. As many as 215 MPs voted in favour of the bill.
Rajya Sabha unanimously passes 𝑵𝒂𝒓𝒊 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒌𝒕𝒊 𝑽𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝒅𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒚𝒂𝒎 (Women's Reservation Bill) with
214:Ayes
0:Noes
0:AbstainPrime minister Narendra Modi terms it as a defining moment in our Nation's democratic journey. #WomenReservationBill2023… pic.twitter.com/0wnMl9rVDa
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) September 21, 2023
The Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, which seeks to reserve one-third of the total seats in the lower house of parliament and the state legislative assemblies exclusively for women.
It will come into effect after the delimitation and redrawing of constituencies, which may not happen before the 2029 elections.
The Lok Sabha had passed the bill on Wednesday by a two-thirds majority. It will now require the approval of a majority of the state assemblies. The law will be implemented after a delimitation exercise based on the Census data.
Named as Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the bill seeks reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. It mandates that one third of the total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be allocated for women from those groups. The reservation of seats for women will cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of the Amendment Act.
Earlier, participating in a debate on the bill in the upper house, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the legislation will boost women empowerment in the country. He thanked all members of the house for arriving at a consensus on passing the bill.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government convened the special session to give a good start to the new building of Parliament by pushing one of the best bills. She also asserted that the BJP does not play politics in matters related to women.
“We have come into a new complex, new building for Parliament, new India. We would like this Parliament to deal with one of the best bills that it can deal with,” she said.
The bill was introduced in the upper house by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal who said it is part of a series of measures the government has taken for the empowerment of women.
Meghwal said the 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will be both horizontal and vertical, thereby applying to the SC-ST category as well.
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Lok Sabha passes women’s quota bill; 454 MPs vote in favour; two against
The Lok Sabha passed the bill on Wednesday with 454 MPS voting in favour of it. Two AIMIM members voted against the bill.
This was the seventh attempt since 1996 to get the women’s reservation bill passed. Women presently make up for nearly half of India’s 95 crore registered voters but comprise only 15 per cent of lawmakers in Parliament and 10 per cent in the state assemblies.
While talking in the lower house on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had sought to allay apprehension of a delay in the implementation of the bill, saying the next government will conduct the census and the delimitation exercise immediately after the elections and set in motion the process to make reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies a reality.
