Women’s Bill in Parliament Tomorrow

New Delhi: The government and the Opposition are expected to be at loggerheads from Thursday, when amendments to the women’s quota bill will be tabled in a three-day special session. The government will also expedite other delimitation reforms required to implement the women’s reservation law.

The Constitution (131st amendment) Bill, 2026, also known as Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women Reservation Bill), will ensure that one-third seats or 273 seats in the Assembly are reserved for women MPs. Accordingly, the amendments, when enacted, will increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 850, of which 273 will be reserved for women.

A bill on delimitation legislation and a bill to enable implementation of the proposed law in the three Union territories of Delhi, Jammu, Kashmir and Puducherry with the legislature will also be passed for speedy implementation of the Women Reservation Act, 2023. The reserved seats will be rotated after each restriction application. This reservation is for a period of 15 years and may be extended by Parliament.

The provision to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was introduced through the amendment to the Constitution in 2023. However, under the current law, reservation for women would not become applicable before 2034 as it depends on the completion of delimitation exercise after the 2027 Census. Amendments were needed in Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam to implement this from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. That’s why the government is holding a special session to pass changes to the law. All three bills will be adopted in the Special Session of Parliament to be held from 16 to 18 April.

Amending the Constitution requires special majorities in both Houses of Parliament; this means a majority (more than 50 percent) of the total number of members and a two-thirds majority of members present and voting. While the total strength of the NDA in the Lok Sabha is 292, major Opposition parties have 233 MPs.

Ahead of the bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was on the verge of taking one of the most important decisions of the 21st century, with Parliament meeting to end the “decades-long wait” by amending the Women’s Reservation Act for implementation in 2029.

Former president Pratibha Patil, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and BSP chief Mayawati welcomed the initiative; However, the Opposition claimed that the northern states, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has more consolidation in its vote bank, will get more seats in the Lok Sabha, while the southern states will get fewer seats due to population size. The opposition also questioned the principle, which was intended to be limited, saying “when the intention behind a bill is malicious and its content deceptive, the extent of damage to parliamentary democracy is enormous.”

The opposition is at an impasse because, on the one hand, it does not seem to oppose the women’s quota, while on the other hand, it has problems with the restriction practice. Ahead of the special session, senior Opposition leaders met at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Wednesday to discuss and develop a common strategy on the women’s quota law. Two prominent non-BJP chief ministers from the south, MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu) and A Revanthy Reddy (Telangana), have sharpened their attacks on the Center to contain, with the Tamil Nadu chief minister warning of “mass agitation” if the state is harmed and his Telangana counterpart pointing out “injustice”.

The government responded by saying that no injustice would be done to any state and that the seats would be increased proportionally and the number of seats available for each state would be increased by 50 percent. Government sources said that the language of the bill is very clear and understandable and misinterpretation of the bill should be avoided. Sources added that all issues and doubts will be clarified when the bill is discussed in Parliament.

“Our democracy will become stronger and more vibrant if the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and various Assembly elections that year are held with women’s reservation fully kept in place,” the Prime Minister said.

NDA sources clarified that the final number of seats will be determined by the Delimitation Commission, hence the bill does not specify an exact number of seats or a fixed percentage (like 50 per cent). Sources claimed that the 850 figure only represents the upper limit for the total number of Lok Sabha seats and that seat allocation will be based on proportional representation and southern states are likely to benefit from this formula. For this, the 2011 Census is used as a reference point. Sources claimed that due to more effective population control in southern states, they may see a relative advantage in seat allocation compared to northern states where population growth is higher.

Political activist and commentator Yogendra Yadav claimed that the Bill opened the floodgates for complete reallocation of seats to states and “gerrymandering”.