Union Cabinet approves women’s reservation bill

Cutting across political lines, leaders have demanded the introduction of the women's reservation bill, which guarantees a 33 per cent quota in Lok Sabha and state assemblies

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the women’s reservation bill, Minister of State Prahlad Singh Patel said.

“Only the Modi government had the moral courage to fulfil the demand for women’s reservation which was proved by the approval of the cabinet. Congratulations Narendra Modi ji and congratulations to the Modi government,” the minister said on X.

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Patel is the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti.

The Union Cabinet met this evening after the first sitting of the five-day special session of Parliament.

The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on for over 90 minutes.

Cutting across political lines, leaders have demanded the introduction of the women’s reservation bill, which guarantees a 33 per cent quota in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

The Women’s Reservation Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 had provision for 33 per
cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Earlier addressing the media, the Prime Minister said that “historic decisions” will be taken this Parliament session which may be of short duration but is big on occasion.

The cabinet meeting was attended by Union ministers including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Ever since it was announced that the Parliament session would be held from September 18-22, there has been speculation on various bills, including the women’s reservation bill.

In his remarks in Lok Sabha on the discussion on 75 years of Parliament, he asserted that the contribution of women parliamentarians has been on the rise over the years.

Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh welcomed the “reported decision” of the Union Cabinet.

“It’s been a long-standing demand of the Congress party to implement women’s reservation.

“We welcome the reported decision of the Union Cabinet and await the details of the Bill. This could have very well been discussed in the all-party meeting before the Special Session, and consensus could have been built instead of operating under a veil of secrecy,” Ramesh said on X.