Union Cabinet clears draft bills to implement women’s quota ahead of 2029 polls

The Union Cabinet has approved draft bills to implement the Women's Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary elections. The proposals include raising Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816, with 273 reserved for women, and extending the law to Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry.

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet is learnt to have cleared on Wednesday draft bills which seek to implement the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 with 273 reserved for women.

Sources privy to the development said a meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the draft bills for the amendments to the law, Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, more commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Act.

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While a Constitution amendment bill will tweak the Adhiniyam, another ordinary bill will amend the Delimitation Act — to pave the way for redrawing of constituencies.

Yet another bill will ensure the law’s implementation in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry, which are the three Union territories with legislature.

The government has extended the budget session of Parliament and a special three-day sitting will be held from April 16 to 18, where the amendment bill is expected to be passed.

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, but it would have come into effect after the completion of the delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2027 Census. Therefore, it was expected to come into force only in 2034 if the present law remains as it is.

According to the broad contours of the available information, the number of Lok Sabha seats would be increased from the present 543 to 816, with 273 seats reserved for women. The reservation will also be done on a “vertical basis” with seats allocated for SCs and STs.

The redrawing of the constituencies will be done on the basis of the 2011 census rather than the proposed 2027 census.

A similar exercise will be carried out for state assemblies, where seats will be reserved on a pro-rata basis.

Responding to a question, a government functionary said, “No bill has ever mentioned the number of seats and nor the proposed bill will,” apparently referring to the proposed Delimitation Act amendment.

Once approved by Parliament, the proposed laws will come into force on March 31, 2029 and will help reserve seats in the next Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing an election rally in Kerala on April 4, the prime minister had said the NDA government has given 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies through a law in 2023.

Modi had urged all parties that this is an issue related to women’s empowerment, and so they should, with an open mind and without any political calculations, fully support it and become partners in winning the trust of the country’s mothers and sisters.

In September 2023, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill.

The law is officially known as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act.