Having championed women’s rights globally through UN Women for seven foundational years and led the campaign for gender parity in political leadership, this moment holds profound personal significance for me. I was thrilled that the BJP was also the first Indian political party to commit to women’s reservation in its 2014 manifesto. I had then expressed a fervent hope, a belief indeed, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government would fulfil its promise.

India today stands on the edge of an unprecedented transformation in gender equality and women’s empowerment. The passage of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023, reserving 33 per cent of seats for women in India’s state assemblies and Parliament, made history — and herstory — under the bold and visionary leadership of PM Modi. He has been a veritable yug purush, an epochal trailblazer for women’s rights and gender justice.

The forthcoming amendment to align census, delimitation and electoral processes in time for the 2029 general elections turns reform into a much-needed revolution on the ground. It operationalises the reservation framework, converting a deferred promise into a lived reality of equal voice, participation and........

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