The 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023: 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why in News?
• Highlights of the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023
• Constitutional Amendments Needed to Operationalise Delimitation
• How will the Reserved Seats be Identified?
• How are the SCs, STs Reserved Seats Decided Currently?
• Reservation for Women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies
• News Summary Regarding the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023

Why in News?

• In a move set to have a wide impact on Indian electoral politics, the Government of India introduced (in the ongoing 5-day special session of Parliament) the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023.
• It attempts to bring in 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies and extends the quota to the seats reserved for SC/STs.

Highlights of the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023:

• The Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha (by the Union Minister of Law and Justice) is similar to the legislation passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 [108th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2008].
• According to the new Bill, as nearly as maybe, one-third (including the seats reserved for women belonging to the SCs and STs) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the House of People/ LS shall be reserved for women.
  • The Bill proposes a similar provision for Assemblies in the states and Delhi.
  • However, the quota will not apply to the Rajya Sabha or state Legislative Councils.
• Like the previous Bill, the new Bill proposes to introduce new articles - 330A and 332A - in the Constitution to introduce the changes for Lok Sabha and Assemblies respectively.
• Like the 2010 Bill, the current one also has a sunset clause, mandating that the reservation will be for a period of 15 years from the date of commencement of the Act.
• However, the key difference from the previous version is that the Bill makes the implementation of women’s reservation contingent upon the delimitation process.
  • The upshot of these conditions is that women’s reservation may not effectively be operationalised in Lok Sabha before the general elections of 2029.
  • The 42nd Amendment froze the delimitation exercise until the results of the first Census after 2000 was published.
  • In 2001 (84th Amendment), this was further extended for 25 years. This means, delimitation would happen after the results of the first Census after 2026 is published.

Constitutional Amendments Needed to Operationalise Delimitation:

• As delimitation is a precondition for the implementation of reservation, for this Articles 82 and 170(3) of the Constitution would have to be amended.
• Article 82 provides for the readjustment of constituencies (number and boundaries) of both Lok Sabha and state Assemblies after every Census.
• Article 170(3) deals with composition of the Legislative Assemblies.

How will the Reserved Seats be Identified?

• The Bill doesn’t specify how these seats (one-third) will be identified. It only proposes the rotation of reserved seats.
• It’s important to remember that this proposed constitution amendment is enabling in nature and it will grant the government the power to enact a law for its implementation.
• In the previous attempt (2010), the government had proposed that constituencies reserved for women would be obtained through a draw of lots to ensure that no seat was reserved more than once in 3 consecutive elections.

How are the SCs, STs Reserved Seats Decided Currently?

• The Delimitation Act 2002 lays down broad principles for reserving seats.
  • The Delimitation Commission appointed under the Act is responsible for deciding the number of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies to be reserved based on the population.
• Constituencies in which seats are reserved for the SCs shall be distributed in different parts of the State and located (as far as practicable) in those areas where the proportion of their population to the total is comparatively large.
• Similarly, constituencies in which seats are reserved for the STs, are located (as far as practicable) in areas where the proportion of their population to the total is the largest.

Reservation for Women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies:

• Article 243D (inserted by the 73rd Amendment Act 1992) of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats for SCs, STs, and women in Panchayats.
• As per the provisions of Article 243D, not less than one-third of the total number of seats reserved for SCs and STs shall be reserved for women.
• According to government data, the percentage of women elected representatives in PRIs was more than 50%, in at least 18 states (Uttarakhand, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, MP, etc).
• The highest proportion of women representatives was in Uttarakhand (56.02%) and the lowest was in UP (33.34%). Overall, there were 45.61% women representatives in PRIs in the country.

News Summary Regarding the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023:

• Once passed, the Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam will take the number of women MPs in the Lok Sabha, as per its present strength of 543, to 181. The current House has 82 women MPs.
• Given that it is a Constitutional amendment Bill, it needs to be passed by both the Houses with “special majority” -
  • A majority of the total members of each House, plus
  • A majority of two-thirds of the House present and voting
  • And to be ratified by at least half the state Assemblies.
• Observing the growing contribution of women in every sector, the Bill aims to include more of them in policy-making.
• In the decision-making process, women can bring different perspectives and enrich the quality of legislative debates and decision-making.
• However, the Opposition accused the government of “fooling the people” by not bringing in the reservation immediately, and introducing the Bill solely with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Q1)  What is meant by delimitation of constituencies?

Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high-power body such as a Delimitation Commission/ a Boundary Commission.

Q2) What is Article 368 of the Indian Constitution?

Article 368 grants constituent power to make formal amendments and empowers Parliament to amend the Constitution by way of addition, variation or repeal of any provision, which is different from the procedure for ordinary legislation.

Source: Calling himself ‘chosen one’, PM Modi brings in women’s Bill, with SC/ST quota | IE