Parliament’s historic law, an extended wait for women, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• The Women's Reservation Act, passed in September 2023, aims to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women.
• Implementation is delayed until after the first Census post-2026 and subsequent delimitation of constituencies, making 2029 implementation impossible.
• The Act mandates a national Census followed by a delimitation exercise, both constitutionally required.
• The author suggests a constitutional amendment to permit reservation before delimitation to enable immediate implementation.

Detailed Insights:

• The next Census is scheduled for 2027, with data processing expected to take 12-18 months, followed by the constitution of a Delimitation Commission.
• The Delimitation Commission faces the complex task of redrawing constituencies, balancing population, administrative boundaries, and community representation.
• Previous Delimitation Commissions took a minimum of three years to complete their work, with the most recent taking six years.
• Linking women’s representation to delimitation entangles gender justice with the divisive issue of north-south seat distribution imbalance.
• The Act excludes the Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Councils, provides no sub-reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) women, and lacks clear rotation rules for reserved constituencies.
• A solution involves amending the Constitution to permit reservation before delimitation, either by expanding the Lok Sabha or applying reservation within current constituencies.
• The government needs to clarify its road map, addressing design gaps and ensuring that representation is not delayed further.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Census: A periodic count of a country's population, gathering demographic and socio-economic data.
• Delimitation: The process of redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary or assembly constituencies.
• Reservation: A policy of setting aside a certain percentage of seats in educational institutions, jobs, or legislatures for specific groups.