Women’s Bill may have to wait till 2034 elections to come in force

Women's reservation bill

Professor Sanjay Kumar, who is the director at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), sees bleak chances for the Women's Reservation Bill to come into force before the 2034 general elections, thanks to delimitation.

“I think the government has made it clear that it will be implemented by the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. However, the next delimitation will take place based on the 2031 census data, so the 2026 exercise may not happen,” he told Moneycontrol.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, too, recently indicated that the Women’s Bill will be implemented after the delimitation process that is set to take place after 2026.

Kumar noted that to complete the process of delimitation, the government will have to wait for the 2031 census data which would be available only in 2033. "Therefore, the Bill may be implemented only in 2034."

He however said that since the government has said that the Bill will be implemented by the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, it may pursue a constitutional amendment to ensure that delimitation takes place in 2026.

Delimitation is an exercise carried out by the government to fix the limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. It essentially entails readjusting the boundaries of a constituency based on the population size. In 1972, the number of the Lok Sabha seats increased from 522 to 543 after delimitation was carried out. It was again carried out in 2002, though no seat additions were made to the Lok Sabha.

In 2002, the government amended the Constitution for the 84th time to put the delimitation process on hold till 2026. However, the amendment also mandates that delimitation should be based on the data from the first census after 2026, which will take place in 2031.

According to Kumar, unless another change is made to the scheme of the Constitution, delivering on the promise of the Women’s Bill may not be possible.

The Women's Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies, was passed by both Houses of Parliament houses in a special session concluded on September 22.

The current Lok Sabha comprises 542 members, with 78, or 14.39 percent, being women. The government's response to the Parliamentary question in 2022 mentioned that the average number of women MLAs in Assemblies across the country is merely 8 percent.

Watch the video of a panel discussion on Women's Reservation Bill here.