Union Cabinet clears Women’s Reservation Bill, say sources

New Delhi: In a major decision that may change the political discourse in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Union Cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has on Monday approved the Bill ensuring reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.

As per sources, the Women’s Reservation Bill, which is also known as the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, will now be introduced in the new building of the Parliament to realize the words of PM Modi that “historic decisions” will be taken in this special session.

However, the government has not yet announced it officially as it skipped the customary briefing that happens after almost every Cabinet meeting.

With several parties pushing for the discussion and passing of the long-standing Bill, the Women’s Reservation Bill has taken a center stage of the five-day Parliament special session that began on Monday. The legislation, if passed, would reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.

As per the Bill, one-third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be reserved for women from those groups. These reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territory.

Prior to the crucial Union Cabinet meeting, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi met Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda. The meeting of key leaders added to speculation that the Cabinet may go ahead with the Women’s Reservation Bill.

As soon as the dates of the special session were announced, there were speculations that the Cabinet may clear anything from reservation for women or Other Backward Classes, “One Nation One Election” and a change of the country’s name.

Millennium Post, in its report published on September 1, had reported that a Women’s Reservation Bill will be introduced for passage in the special session of the Parliament.

However, the government has yet to make it official, but the sources have confirmed the clearance of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Union Cabinet. It’s worth mentioning, the Bill, which was brought in 2008 during the Congress –led UPA government, was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 and since then it has been on freeze. The Bill was never presented in the lower house.

Given that the BJP and the Congress have always supported the Bill, there were hurdles in the form of Opposition by other parties and demands for a quota for backward classes within the women’s quota.

Even while speaking in the Parliament on the first-day of the special session, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary pitched for Women’s Reservation Bill and demanded its introduction in the Lok Sabha during the five-day special session. Besides, the parties had made a strong push for it at the all-party meeting that held on Sunday.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking at the discussion on “Parliamentary Journey of 75 years Starting from Samvidhan Sabha – Achievements, Experiences, Memories And Learnings”, pointed to the depleting gender ratio, saying parliament has only 14 percent women, and their percentage in legislative assemblies is just 10.

When the BJP slammed the Congress over the issue, a strong retort came from Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule, who said that she would like to “set the record straight”.

“The first woman president of India Pratibha Patil, was from the Congress, the first woman PM of the country Indira Gandhi was from the Congress, the first woman speaker Meira Kumar was from the Congress,” she said.

On the Cabinet decision, Congress MP in Rajya Sabha Ranjeet Ranjan said, “Congress has always been in favour of the Women’s Reservation Bill. It was the Congress that had brought such an important Bill.”