Women’s Bill in Parliament Tomorrow

New Delhi: The government and Opposition are set to be at loggerheads from Thursday when the amendments in the provisions for women’s quota bill is tabled during the three-day special session. The government will also move to fast-track other delimitation reforms needed to see through the women’s reservation law.The Constitution (131st amendment) Bill 2026 also known as Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women’s Reservation Act), is to ensure reservation of one-third seats of the House, or 273 seats, for women lawmakers. Accordingly, the amendments, when passed, will ensure an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats to 850, of which 273 will be reserved for women. A bill on delimitation law and an enabling bill to apply the proposed law in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry three Union territories with legislature – will also be passed to fast track implementation of the women’s reservation Act of 2023. The reserved seats will be rotated after every delimitation exercise. The reservation is set for a period of 15 years, which may be extended by Parliament. The provision to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies was brought by amending the Constitution in 2023. However, 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. All three bills are to be passed in the upcoming Special Session of Parliament from April 16 to 18. Amending the Constitution requires a special majority in both Houses of Parliament which means a majority of the total membership (more than 50 per cent) and a two-thirds majority of members present and voting. The total strength of NDA in Lok Sabha stands at 292, while the major Opposition parties have 233 MPs. Ahead of the Bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India stands on the brink of making one of the most significant decisions of the 21st century as Parliament meets to end “decades of waiting” by amending the Women’s Reservation Act for its implementation in 2029. Former president Pratibha Patil, ex-Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and BSP chief Mayawati have welcomed the initiative, even though the Opposition claimed that the northern states where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has higher consolidation of vote bank will get more seats in Lok Sabha while the southern states will get fewer seats due to the population size. Opposition has also questioned the principle being planned for delimitation saying “ when the intent behind a bill is mischievous and the content of it is devious, the extent of damage to parliamentary democracy is enormous.” The Opposition is caught in a bind as on one side it cannot be seen opposing women’s quota but on another it has issues with delimitation exercise. Ahead of the special sitting, top Opposition leaders on Wednesday met at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss and evolve a joint strategy on the women’s quota law. Already two prominent non-BJP chief ministers from the south, M. K. Stalin (Tamil Nadu) and A Revanthy Reddy (Telangana), have sharpened their attack against the Centre over delimitation, with the Tamil Nadu chief minister warning of “massive agitation” if the state was harmed and his Telangana counterpart flagging “injustice”. The government has countered this by saying there will be no injustice to any state, seats will be increased proportionately and there will be 50 per cent increase of current seats for every state. Sources in government said the language of the bill is very clear and straight forward and any wrong interpretation of this bill should be avoided. Sources added all issues and doubts will be clarified during the discussion on the bill in the Parliament. “Our democracy will become stronger and more vibrant if the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and various Assembly elections that year are held with women’s reservation fully in place,” said PM. NDA sources explained that the final number of seats will be determined by the Delimitation Commission, hence, the bill does not specify an exact seat count or a fixed percentage (such as 50 per cent). The figure of 850 represents only the upper limit for the total number of Lok Sabha seats and seat allocation will be based on proportional representation and southern states are likely to benefit under this formula, sources claimed. For this the 2011 Census is being used as the reference point. Sources claimed due to more effective population control in southern states, they could see a relative advantage in seat allocation compared to northern states, where population growth has been higher. Political activist and commentator Yogendra Yadav claimed the Bill opens the floodgates for complete reallocation of seats for states and for “gerrymandering”.



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