WHAT WILL HOLD UP WOMEN'S RESERVATION BILL?
Current Affairs for 24th September, 2023
WHAT WILL HOLD UP WOMEN'S RESERVATION BILL?
Parliament passed the historic Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill which provides 33% reservation for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
After a near-unanimous support in Lok Sabha and all votes from Rajya Sabha, it will now require the President's assent to become law.
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha, the State Legislative Assemblies and the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
This will also apply to seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
The reserved seats will be rotated after each delimitation exercise.
Delimitation- readjustment of territorial limits of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies, as well as the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies in each state.
It is a periodical exercise based on the figures available in the last Census.
The last delimitation order of the Commission was issued in 2008, fixing the boundaries of all constituencies. But, there is a freeze on the readjustment of number of seats.
In 2002, Article 82 was amended to the effect that it shall not be necessary to readjust the allocation of Lok Sabha constituencies state-wise and the division of each State into constituencies until the figures of the first Census held after 2026 were available.
It was the enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution in 1993 which laid the ground for women's reservation bill. The two amendments introduced Panchayats and urban local bodies in the Constitution, and mandated 1/3rd reservation for women.
In 2006, Bihar became the first state to provide 50% reservation for women in panchayat bodies. The number is now more than 20.