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In my article in The Wire on Monday (April 13), I argued that women’s reservation in Lok Sabha can be implemented immediately – without waiting for a Census, without delimitation and without displacing a single Member of Parliament – by introducing a supplementary layer of proportional representation.

“Parliament can, through a focused constitutional amendment, increase the strength of the Lok Sabha by adding approximately 273 seats, as already decided by the Cabinet, and allocate these seats to political parties in proportion to their vote share in the 2024 general election. These additional seats can be reserved entirely for women.”

That argument addressed feasibility. The question now is acceptability.

There is understandable hesitation in some quarters about introducing proportional representation into a system that has, for decades, relied on first-past-the-post. Electoral systems acquire a certain inertia over time; they shape political behaviour, party structures and voter expectations. Any proposal that appears to alter this equilibrium, even partially, is bound to invite caution.

But hesitation, in the present case, rests on a misunderstanding.

The proposal is not to replace the existing system. It is not even to modify it in any permanent sense. It is to supplement it – temporarily – building a pragmatic bridge between a constitutional promise already made and its eventual full implementation, through the established route of Census and delimitation.

A transitional device, not a systemic shift

The supplementary seats proposed should, therefore, be seen for what they are: an interim constitutional device, not a structural redesign of India’s electoral architecture.

Delimitation, tied to the first census after 2026, is inevitable. But it is also time-consuming. The sequence – completion of the census, publication of data, constitution of the Delimitation Commission, redrawing of constituencies and final notification – has historically taken three to six years, if not longer.

This makes it unlikely that women’s reservation will take effect before 2034. That would mean asking women to wait not just the 26 years between the Bill’s first........

© The Wire