The Women’s Reservation Bill has a backstory and an arduous journey
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Context
The article examines the arduous journey of women's political reservation in India, culminating in the . However, the actual implementation of the quota remains stalled due to its dependency on a pending Census and a highly contested delimitation exercise, sparking political friction over federalism and electoral timelines.
UPSC Perspectives
Historical
The discourse around women's political representation in India has evolved significantly since the national movement. Early freedom fighters like Sarojini Naidu initially rejected preferential treatment, advocating for absolute equality without quotas. A watershed moment arrived with the 1974 report by the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) titled 'Towards Equality'. Chaired by , this landmark document highlighted the declining socio-economic status of women and fundamentally shifted the policy narrative toward affirmative action. The first major institutional victory was achieved via the in 1992-93, which successfully implemented a 33% reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies. UPSC Focus: Aspirants should understand how grassroots political empowerment through local bodies created the groundwork for demanding similar quotas in Parliament and State Assemblies, contextualizing the legislative failures of 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2008.
Constitutional
The historic was passed to ensure 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies are reserved for women, including horizontal sub-quotas for SCs and STs. However, the law explicitly ties the rollout of this reservation to two prerequisites: the publication of the next decennial Census data and the completion of a fresh delimitation process. Under of the Constitution, Parliament is required to readjust the allocation of seats based on fresh census data. To encourage state-level population control, the 84th Amendment Act of 2001 froze the number of Lok Sabha seats based on the 1971 census until the first census post-2026. UPSC Focus: Questions can frame the 106th Amendment's reliance on as both a procedural necessity and a political hurdle. Candidates must be clear on why the quota cannot be implemented immediately without altering constituency boundaries first.
Governance & Federalism
The convergence of the women's reservation rollout with the unfreezing of delimitation post-2026 presents a profound federal dilemma. To accommodate the 33% quota without cutting existing seats, the government is reportedly exploring a massive expansion of the Lok Sabha (from 543 to potentially over 800 seats). This expansion threatens the federal balance. Southern states have successfully controlled their fertility rates and fear that a strictly population-based delimitation will disproportionately shift political power to highly populated Northern states. Furthermore, the article highlights governance concerns regarding the legislative process, criticizing the ruling party for bypassing opposition consensus and using the timeline as a political tool. UPSC Focus: Evaluate the trade-off between the democratic principle of 'one person, one vote, one value' and the federal need to protect states that successfully implemented national family planning goals.