Bharat Nari Shakti: Parliament clears Women’s Quota Bill

New Delhi: In a historic move, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday unanimously passed the women's reservation bill after an 11-hour debate. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Now 33% reservation for women in Parliament and in the state assemblies will become a law and will be implemented after census and delimitation, a point that the Opposition questioned.

In the Lok Sabha, only two MPs from the AIMIM opposed the bill. This is the first bill to have been passed in the new Parliament building. After the bill was cleared by the Upper House, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar congratulated the members and said it is a historic achievement.

“Historic achievement, congratulations. It is also a coincidence that today is PM Modi's birthday by Hindu calendar,” Dhankar said after the bill was passed.

On Thursday, Nirmala Sitharaman talked about the bill and called it long overdue. On why the government has convened a special session of Parliament, Sitharaman said, "We have come into a new complex, new building for Parliament, new India. We would like this Parliament to deal with one of the best bills that it can deal with." "What this bill provides for is reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha. I have heard some members saying that reservation should also be given in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha). With the indirect election process and the way in which preferences (are) shown in the voting, it's just not going to be possible to do any reservation," Sitharaman said. Mallikarjun Kharge in his intervention questioned the delay in the implementation of the bill and asked why PM Modi can't do it right now while he can ban notes overnight.

During the debate in the Upper House on the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill that seeks to reserve a third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, members also highlighted the need to accelerate the process instead of waiting for a fresh census and delimitation exercise.

V Vijayasai Reddy (YSRCP) also supported the bill and said the reservation for women must also be extended to Rajya Sabha and state legislative councils.

KC Venugopal of the Congress sought immediate implementation of the legislation. He also sought reservation for the OBC women under the bill. Venugopal claimed the Narendra Modi government did not make any effort to bring the bill in the last nine years and it is due to the political calculations that the government has brought the legislation now. "Life-transforming legislations should come from the heart and not from the head," he said in the Upper House.

Rajani Ashokrao Patil of the Congress and Mausam Noor of the TMC also supported the bill. Sulata Deo of the BJD, Subhas Chandra Bose Pilli of the YSRCP, Ravichandra Vaddiraju of the BRS and K Ravindra Kumar of the TDP also participated in the discussion.