Reservation for Women
RESERVATION FOR WOMEN IN LEGISLATIVE HOUSES: TOWARDS EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2010 as approved by Rajya Sabha recently, seeks to reserve as nearly as possible one third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, and the state legislative assemblies including Delhi. Rajya Sabha and Legislative councils in States are excluded from the purview of this reservation, justification for which was not explained anywhere. The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by the Parliament. This bill also seeks to reserve one-third seats among those reserved to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in favour of SC/ST women. These reservations will cease to exist 15 years after commencement of the Act. This Bill has a provision giving power to the Center to review and extend the reservations. Reserved seats will be allocated by rotation to different constituencies in the state and union territory. If a state or union territory as only one seat in the Lok Sabha that seat shall be reserved for women in the first general election of every cycle of three elections. If there are two seats, each shall be reserved once in a cycle of three elections. Similar rules apply for seats reserved for SC/STs. Of the two seats in the Lok Sabha reserved for Anglo Indians, one will be reserved for women in each of the two elections in a cycle of three elections. Similar provisions are made for all the seats in state legislative assemblies also.
If reservations policy is accepted as an instrument of development and empowerment, this Bill translates that policy in to law. For those opposing the reservation as a policy, this may not be acceptable. But taking into account the acceptability the policy secured in number of Supreme Court judgments and enactments by Central and State Legislatures, the reservation policy, which started as a temporary phenomenon has come to stay as part of our equality
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2010 as approved by Rajya Sabha recently, seeks to reserve as nearly as possible one third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, and the state legislative assemblies including Delhi. Rajya Sabha and Legislative councils in States are excluded from the purview of this reservation, justification for which was not explained anywhere. The allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed by the Parliament. This bill also seeks to reserve one-third seats among those reserved to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in favour of SC/ST women. These reservations will cease to exist 15 years after commencement of the Act. This Bill has a provision giving power to the Center to review and extend the reservations. Reserved seats will be allocated by rotation to different constituencies in the state and union territory. If a state or union territory as only one seat in the Lok Sabha that seat shall be reserved for women in the first general election of every cycle of three elections. If there are two seats, each shall be reserved once in a cycle of three elections. Similar rules apply for seats reserved for SC/STs. Of the two seats in the Lok Sabha reserved for Anglo Indians, one will be reserved for women in each of the two elections in a cycle of three elections. Similar provisions are made for all the seats in state legislative assemblies also.
If reservations policy is accepted as an instrument of development and empowerment, this Bill translates that policy in to law. For those opposing the reservation as a policy, this may not be acceptable. But taking into account the acceptability the policy secured in number of Supreme Court judgments and enactments by Central and State Legislatures, the reservation policy, which started as a temporary phenomenon has come to stay as part of our equality