New Delhi : Sources informed that the Cabinet Meeting has approved the Women’s Reservation Bill in the special session of the Parliament. A meeting of the Union Cabinet was held at the Parliament House. The bill for 33 percent reservation for women has been approved in this meeting. The Women’s Reservation Bill is likely to be introduced in a special session of Parliament on September 20. In the past few days, Congress, Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samiti and other parties demanded the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
What is in this bill?
The Women’s Reservation Bill proposes to reserve 33 percent or one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The Bill proposes sub-reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Anglo-Indians in a quota of 33 per cent. The bill proposes that reservation for women should be rotated after every general election. Reserved seats may be allocated by rotation to different constituencies in a state or union territory. After 15 years of the implementation of this amendment act, the reservation for women will end.
Reservation is pending for 27 years
The Women’s Reservation Bill, which has been pending for almost 27 years, will now come before the Parliament. The number of women MPs in the Lok Sabha is less than 15 per cent, while their representation in state legislatures is less than 10 per cent. The Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2010 amid uproar. In the Rajya Sabha, Marshall expelled some MPs who opposed the 33 percent reservation for women. However, this bill could not be passed in the Lok Sabha.
Congress and Left parties have always supported women’s reservation. Some other parties opposed it regarding some demands of OBC reservation in women quota. Now once again many parties demanded to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in this special session.
In the current Lok Sabha, 14 percent are women MPs
78 women members have been elected in the current Lok Sabha. Compared to the total of 543 MPs, the proportion is less than 15 percent. According to the figures submitted by the government in Parliament in December last year, women’s representation in Rajya Sabha too is around 14 per cent. In addition, 10 states have less than 10 percent representation in state legislatures, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura and The states include Pondicherry.