A Parliament Session to Push Women Reservation

The Indian parliament budget session is to reconvene on April 16, likely for three days. The purpose of this gathering is to make a major change in Indian political system as the government plans to introduce and pass important legislations.  The core idea is to increase the number of seats in Lok Sabha from 543 to 816, this is a major structural reform tied to future population representations.

The Woman Reservation Act (Nari Shakti Vadan Adhiniyam) reserves 33% seats for woman in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. However, the law has been passed, it has not been implemented yet. The reason behind this is that before 33% seat provided to woman, the total number of seats and constituencies needs to be updated. This process is called delimitation, in which the electoral boundaries are redrawn based on population. Without this step the reservation cannot be applied properly.

 At present woman only make 14 to 15% of seats in Lok Sabha which is much less than 33% that has been promised. In this matter of concern, if the bill passes it will gradually increase women- participation in politics and decision -making roles.