Mayawati welcomes passage of women’s reservation bill in Parliament, reiterates demand for backward quota

BSP chief Mayawati on Friday welcomed the passage of the women's reservation bill in both Houses of Parliament but repeated her demand for quotas for women from the scheduled castes and tribes and the Other Backward Classes within the quota.

Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Friday welcomed the passage of the women’s reservation bill in both Houses of Parliament but repeated her demand for quotas for women from the scheduled castes and tribes and the Other Backward Classes within the quota.

In a post on ‘X’, she also said it would have been better if the bill could be implemented “immediately”.

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The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which will reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, received the Parliamentary nod on Thursday as the Rajya Sabha voted unanimously in favour of it.

The bill will now require the approval of a majority of state assemblies. It will be implemented after a delimitation exercise to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on a census which the government has said will be commissioned next year.

Mayawati on X wrote, “We welcome the passage of the women’s reservation bill by both Houses of Parliament, but the country would have greeted it wholeheartedly if it had been implemented immediately as per their expectations. After a long wait of almost 27 years, how justified is it to wait even longer with uncertainty?” “However, not including women from the OBC community, who form the majority of the country’s population, in the bill is depriving that large section of the Bahujan community of justice. Similarly, not giving separate reservation to women of SC and ST communities is equally unfair and a denial of the recognition of social justice,” she said in a following post.

Stressing her demand for a quota within the quota, the politician on Wednesday said, “I again appeal for a separate quota for women from SC/ST category in the 33 per cent reservation. And similarly, the quota of the OBC women should also be decided as they are still backward as compared to the general category women.” “…the government should include the OBC community in this women’s reservation bill, give separate reservation to SC and ST category women and take all necessary measures to implement this bill with immediate effect. Ignoring women from religious minority communities is also unfair,” she wrote.