What is women reservation bill?



1. The women reservation bill will reserve the 33 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for the females.


2. The bill is pending from the year 1996 proving that Indian politicians are not ready to accept this bill so every time we see the new drama, new demand from political parties.


3. The women reservation bill will provide Reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making, starting with the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures.

4. If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state, or local governments. And this number will be 181 . The Bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies.


5. The reserved seats will be rotated. So the seats will be reserved only once every 3 election.


6. Currently 33.3 percent seats in panchayat elections have been reserved for women already.


7. In the May 2004 general election, 539 candidates were elected to the 14th Lok Sabha. Only 44 of them are women.


8. Women have less than 10 percent representation in India’s parliament even though they make up 44 percent of the voting population.


History of Women Reservation bill in India –


1. 1996 — The Deve Gowda government introduces the women’s reservation bill as 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill.


2. 1998 — the bill is re-introduced in the 12th Lok Sabha as the 84th Constitutional Amendment Bill by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed Atal Bihari Vajpayee.


3. 1999 — The NDA government re-introduces the bill in the 13th Lok Sabha.


4. 2002 — the bill is introduced in parliament but fails to sail through.


5. 2003 — Bill introduced twice in parliament.


6. 2004 — The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government includes it in the Common Minimum Programme.


7. 2008 — the government tables the bill in the Rajya Sabha so that the legislation does not lapse.


8. 2010 — the cabinet clears the bill for taking it up in the Rajya Sabha. And on 8th March mother India was again made to cry by some political parties, just like Draupadi of Mahabharat. The house was adjourned for the sixth times and congress failed to punish the law breakers and kept silence like the they also wanted the bill be treated like Draupadi and enjoyed the drama when mother india was insulted.


Update 9th March 2010


The women’s reservation Bill was finally passed in the Rajya Sabha with 186 members voting for it and only one voting against it.


Trinamool Congress Members remained absent when the Bill was put to vote.


The Bahujan Samaj Party Members boycotted the voting


Now the bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha