Law for 50% quota to women in local bodies on cards: Birender

At a time when the Women’s Reservation Bill – promising to set aside 33 per cent of the seats in Parliament and state assemblies – is stuck in Parliament, Union Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation Birender Singh assured that the government was mulling to bring in a legislation to ensure 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.

“Over a dozen states have already given 50 per cent reservation to women in Panchayats, local bodies and municipal committees. This is a progressive and good move. We are also mulling to introduce the legislation in Parliament, so that other states can follow it,” he told Millennium Post.

Singh added that deliberations regarding the issue were on with the states and the departments concerned. Once complete, the legislation would be drafted and introduced in Parliament this year itself.

As per the 73rd and 74th Amendment Act of the Constitution passed in 1993, one-third of the total seats in all local bodies are reserved for women. Nearly 16 states have already introduced 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj institutions. 

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have already implemented reservation for women in local bodies.

Meanwhile, as this exemplary move seems to be mooted, the Women’s Reservation Bill is caught in a limbo in Parliament. 

It was passed in the Rajya Sabha last in 2010, but eventually lapsed due to lack of consensus in the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, the present NDA government is yet to table their version of the Bill, despite flagging it as one of its key issues in the BJP’s manifesto in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.