The Women’s Reservation Bill: where empowerment and federal equity clashed, and consensus gave way to confrontation, stalling a long-awaited reform

In an unprecedented development, the Women’s Reservation Bill fell on the floor of Parliament, dashing hopes of women’s reservation of 33 per cent in the Lok Sabha. The government had worked hard on it and had called a three-day special session of Parliament to pass the bill. But that was not to happen as the opposition parties and regional parties did not agree to the provisions of the proposed bill. The southern states, in particular, felt that their representation, though might improve in absolute terms, would decrease in proportion to the northern states, where population is dense and the sole criterion for the delimitation was the head count. The collapse of the women’s reservation........

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