Government clears bills to amend quota law for women

NEW DELHI: Government on Wednesday cleared the draft bills for amendments to the women's reservation law, paving the way for Parliament to take up the legislations for implementation of 33% reservation for them in Lok Sabha and state assemblies from 2029.The draft bills, approved by the cabinet, will be introduced in the special Parliament session starting April 16. TOI has learnt that three bills will be introduced - Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Delimitation Bill and a separate legislation to extend reservation for women in UTs which have assemblies.The proposed changes will result in increase in the number of LS seats from the current 543 to 816, with 273 reserved for women.

Reservation will also be done a "vertical basis" with seats allocated for SCs and STs.The provision for one-third reservation to women in LS and state assemblies was brought by passing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023. The law would have come into effect after the completion of the delimitation exercise on the basis of 2027 Census. Hence, it was expected to come into force in 2034, if the present law remained as it is.

People aware of the development said the redrawing of LS constituencies will be done on the basis of the 2011 Census rather than the proposed 2027 Census. A similar exercise will be carried out for state assemblies, where seats will be reserved on a pro-rata basis.While the Constitution amendment bill will tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the delimitation bill will lead to the formation of a delimitation commission to redraw boundaries of LS and assembly constituencies.Once the bills are approved by Parliament, the proposed laws will come into force after March 31, 2029, and will be implemented from the 2029 LS polls and simultaneous assembly elections in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh.