The passage of women’s reservation Bill from parliament is undoubtedly a historic achievement in our nation’s democratic journey. Now the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam will go to the President for her consent. Then the 33% quota for women in parliament and state assemblies will officially become law through the consent of 15 state legislatures. But implementing women’s reservation will need a lot of work. Some of it very complex and politically fraught.
So now million dollars question is going around the political corridors and in public domain about when will reservation actually commence. After the delimitation that will happen after the much delayed census excercise completed. This poses a double test. First, India’s decadal census is running years late. Second, the delimitation exercise will be politically fraught with south India expected to take a hit for the good job it’s done of development, which has resulted in its population growth falling way behind the north. The 2002 freeze on delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies has a post 2026 deadline, which is about when the delayed census 2021 data is expected to come in. Therefore we know that reservation will commence thereabouts, not sooner.
Will there be quota within quota provided? As it is already crystal clear that one third 33 percent of the seats reserved for women shall be reserved for women belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled Tribes, says the constitutional amendment bill. Calls for inclusion of OBC reservation raised vociferously by the opposition leaders is yet to be resolved. Home Minister Amit Shah assured agitating opposition that if any discrepancies remain in the bill, that will be rectified on some later date. So this politically volatile issue remains to be solved.
Perhaps the biggest unknown is about the rotation of reserved seats that the bill says, ” shall take effect after each subsequent excercise of delimitation as the parliament may by law determine”. Rotating one third seats of Lok Sabha before every election is the route considered the least unfair. With the reservation only expected to kick in full swing only after the next census and delimitation, there is time to find widely consensual solutions. Of course political parties should not wait to find and field more winnable candidates among women. That process should be started this election cycle itself. On their own political parties should should start implementing 33% quota in their rank and file. What PM Modi or Rahul Gandhi told in parliament should be implemented without any delay. Let the legal process take it time, politicians should show the future way out.
