Women’s quota, held hostage to delimitation
The women’s reservation law, passed three ago, is yet to be implemented as it remains trapped in a political maze linking census, delimitation and federal interests
Three years ago, Parliament did something it rarely does: agree unanimously. The Rajya Sabha passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, by 214 votes to none, promising a third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies to women, with a further third of that share reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women. Six previous attempts had failed since 1996; this one finally succeeded.
What has still not happened, even now, is a single woman entering a legislature under its provisions — because the Act made its own arrival conditional........
