Women Reservation law in Limbo: Gender Politics or political chicanery
VK Bahuguna
April 25, 2026
The
Constitutional (131 Amendment Bill), 2026 aimed at implementation of 33% women
reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by 2029 fell through in the Lok Sabha on 17th
April 2026 as the government could not muster the two third majority required
to pass the Bill. It has dashed the hopes of 50% of the population of the
country at the altar of political rivalry and thus an historical opportunity
for gender equity in running the country’s legislatures was lost. One of the
contentious issues was the delimitation being proposed by the government to
increase the Lok Sabha seats to 850 from the present 543 seats. The opposition
Congress and DMK opposed it on specious ground with no solid reasons that the
seats of Southern States would be reduced. Rather the seats are indeed
increasing after adjusting the women reservation in each state. In fact
Southern states as stated by Andhra Chief Minister Mr Chandra Babu Naidu have
lost an historical opportunity for increased participation in the Parliament as
there was a simple formula to increase seats by 50% in each State to accommodate
33% reservations for women. It was a well intentioned decision by the Narendra
Modi government. The opposition parties have given a self defeating blow to them
and committed a political hara-kiri of worst kind. While the principle of gender
parity is widely celebrated in public discourse, the legislative journey of the
Women’s Reservation Bill reveals a complex landscape of federal friction,
identity politics, and the strategic survival of the existing political class.
Though since
Independence India’s journey in gender equity has been far better than the
western democracies like USA and Britain. It is actually quite a point of pride
in Indian history that India adopted Universal Adult Suffrage
immediately upon the commencement of the Constitution in 1950. Unlike Britain
or the United States, which forced women to fight for decades or even centuries
for the right, India enfranchised all women and men equally from day one. In
that sense, India’s "starting line" was more progressive than the
long, staggered journey the British had to endure. Britain though allowed
sketchy women franchise in 1921 but one person one vote came only after 1948
Act.
In
India the historical breakthrough was reached in September 2023, the Constitution
(106th Amendment) Act was passed by
the Parliament. It promised 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State
Assemblies. Yet, a crucial caveat was inserted: the reservation would only take
effect after a new Census was conducted and a subsequent delimitation for redrawing of constituency boundaries was completed.
The government logic is simple by adding new seats;
the state can carve out a 33% quota for women without unseating current male
representatives. It was a win-win situation which the opposition’s short sightedness
derailed it. The DMK and the Congress raised the spurious issue of demographic
dominance of North which is a frivolously diversionary Politics as the proposal
has equal share for each state in the ratio of 50%. The opposition parties
merged the divisive politics of federalism with the women reservation at a time
when the women were about to get their share as agreed by all parties after the
2023 bill was passed. As of April 2026,
this delimitation clause has become the epicentre of Indian
politics highlighting
the critical fault lines of Indian politics. Now many critics are asking the opposition parties why
they did not raise the issue of reservation based on existing seats in 2023
when the Bill was passed and why they supported delimitation clause at that
time and now finding fault with it. Many women organizations claim that it is a
case of gender bias to deliberately deny the women their right by hook or
crook.
Many family based parties raised the issue of
reservation within reservations especially sub-quota for backward classes. The
opposition fear is that the redrawing of boundaries could be used to
strategically weaken opposition strongholds under the guise of gender
empowerment. The politics of women’s reservation is not just about seats; it is
about the gate keeping of political power. Even without a formal quota,
political parties have the power to field more women candidates. However, data
from recent assembly elections shows that women constitute only about 10% of
total candidates. Parties often cite winning prospects as a reason for not
nominating women, a logic that reservation aims to break. Furthermore, there is
the well known phenomenon of "Sarpanch Pati" (husbands of elected
women exercising actual power) seen at the grass root democracy. Critics argue
that without systemic changes in the internal structures of parties and the
elimination of muscle politics, a seat-based quota might only lead to
"proxy" representation.
Let us also discuss about the tricky issue of delimitation
which is mandated under Article 82 for the Parliamentary Constituencies and
Article 170 for the State assemblies based on census data. The 42nd
Amendment Act (1976) froze the allocation of seats to states and the division
of constituencies at the 1971 census level until the year 2000. Further, 84th
Amendment Act (2001) & 87th Amendment (2003) extended the freeze on
seat allocation until 2026, though it permitted re-adjusting constituency
boundaries within states based on the 2001 census. The current seat allocation is based on
the 2001 Census, with the next delimitation exercise due after the first census
conducted after 2026.
However,
before the next step is taken the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi must
think of amending the constitution to lay out a broader framework for
delimitation and abandon the sole criteria of census based population for
delimitation of constituencies as the population control has become a prime national
need of the present time. Already the Southern states who have controlled the
population growth well have been demanding the change in approach. Similarly, Uttarakhand
and Himachal were at loss in the past as their difficult terrains were not
taken into consideration while allocating seats. A case in point is in 1950 Delhi with an area
of 1489 sq km with a population in 1950 of little above four lakh after
partition of the country was allocated seven Lok Sabha seats as against five to
Uttarakhand with an area of 55,000 sq km and a population of around 29 lakh in
1950. In case of Himachal four seats of allocated as against a population of
23.86 lakhs in 1950. Such distortions need to be corrected but require a very
bold vision. A futuristic pragmatic and innovative solution is the need of the
hour but in any case the 2026 delimitation
should be the last delimitation exercise.
(The writer is former IFS officer and
Chairman of Centre for Resource Management and Environment)
(Tripurainfo)
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