India reserves one-third of seats in the lower house of Parliament for women
NEW DELHI — India’s Parliament has approved landmark legislation reserving 33% of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, ending a 27-year impasse over the bill.
But the wait is still not over, as the new law will not apply to next year’s national elections.
It will be implemented in the 2029 national elections following a new census and redistricting after next year’s polls, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during a debate in the upper house of India’s Parliament on Thursday night.
The lower house of Parliament approved the legislation Wednesday on a 454-2 vote, and the upper house passed it unanimously, 214-0, late Thursday.
India’s decennial census was to be held in 2021 but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All opposition parties supported the bill and said the delay in its implementation was an injustice to women. They demanded that it apply to the next national elections, which are due to be held before May.
India will soon eclipse China to become the world’s most populous country, and its economy is among the fastest-growing.
Under the legislation, the reservation of seats for women would continue for 15 years and could be extended by Parliament. Only women will be allowed to contest 33% of the seats in the elected lower house of Parliament and in state legislatures.
Home Minister Amit Shah said four attempts by three governments since 1996 failed to enact the legislation.
Women make up more than 48% of India’s 1.4 billion people but only 15.1% of Parliament, compared with the international average of 24%, Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said. In India’s state legislatures, women hold about 10% of the seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress party have been trying to enact legislation to bring about gender parity and inclusive governance since 1996. They faced opposition from regional parties, which argued that seats reserved for women would be cornered by the educated elite from urban areas, leaving poor and less educated women unrepresented.
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But opposition to the bill waned over the years, “giving way to broader symbolic politics where it is crucial to being perceived as responsive to emerging constituencies — like women,†the Indian Express newspaper wrote.
India remains a patriarchal society in which the social status of work done by women is often considered inferior to that done by men. Men also often enjoy greater rights than women.
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