Women's reservation: from local bodies to the 106th Amendment

Detail

1. The starting point: equal vote, unequal seats

• Universal adult franchise (Art. 326, 1950): every adult citizen can vote. Women got the vote on the same day as men. They did not have to fight for it separately.
• Voting rights did not bring seats. Women held about 15% of Lok Sabha seats in the 17th Lok Sabha (2019–24). They averaged about 9% in state assemblies [3].
• A 2015 government report called women's share in assemblies and Parliament "dismal" [3].
• Women's reservation means keeping a fixed share of elected seats for women. Only women can contest those seats.

2. Local bodies: the 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992)

• 73rd Amendment (1992) added Part IX (Panchayats). 74th Amendment (1992) added Part IXA (Municipalities).
• Art. 243D (panchayats) and Art. 243T (municipalities):
• Not less than one-third of seats filled by direct election are reserved for women.
• One-third of the SC and ST reserved seats also go to SC and ST women.
• Chairperson posts are covered as well. Under Art. 243D these are the panchayat chairpersons, such as the sarpanch or pradhan. Under Art. 243T, states reserve mayor and chairperson posts in urban bodies by their own law.

• Rotation: the reserved seats move to different constituencies at each election, so no single seat stays reserved forever.

• "Not less than" sets a floor, not a ceiling. States can give more:

• 21 states and 2 UTs give 50% in panchayats (2023).

• 17 states and 1 UT give 50% in urban local bodies (2023).

• Scale: India has about 31 lakh elected local representatives. About 14.5 lakh (46%) of them are women [6]. (NCERT: "more than 10 lakh".)

3. Does a woman in the chair change outcomes?

• Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2004) studied panchayats in West Bengal and Rajasthan. Villages with women pradhans spent more on drinking water, the issue women raised most often.
• Problems:
• Proxy rule ("sarpanch-pati"): the husband or a male relative runs the office, and the elected woman is a name only.

• Rotation hurts continuity. In one study, about 85% of women panchayat members were first-timers. Only about 15% won again once their seat was no longer reserved [3].

• Positive model: women-friendly panchayats such as South Manubankul (Tripura).

4. Earlier attempts to reserve seats in legislatures (1996–2014)

The 81st Amendment Bill 1996 and the Geeta Mukherjee Committee

• The Deve Gowda government introduced the 81st Amendment Bill in 1996. It proposed one-third reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
• The Bill went to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) chaired by Geeta Mukherjee. A JPC has members from both Houses and studies one Bill in detail.
• The JPC made these recommendations:
• one-third reservation, with rotation;
• reservation for 15 years, followed by a review [3];
• covering the Rajya Sabha and legislative councils [3];
• extending reservation to OBC women once the Constitution allowed OBC reservation in legislatures.

Repeated lapses

• More Bills followed in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003. Each one lapsed when its Lok Sabha was dissolved [3].

The 108th Amendment Bill 2008

• Introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and examined by a Standing Committee, which supported the idea [3].
• The Rajya Sabha passed it on 9 March 2010.
• The Lok Sabha never voted on it. Bills pending in the Lok Sabha lapse when it is dissolved, but a Bill that started in the Rajya Sabha usually survives. This one lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014 because it had already passed the Rajya Sabha and was waiting in the Lok Sabha.

Why the attempts failed

• "Quota within quota": some parties wanted a separate share for OBC and minority women inside the women's quota.
• Rotation: an MP who knows the seat will be reserved next time has less reason to work for that constituency.
• Proxy fear: seats might simply go to the wives and daughters of male leaders.

5. The 106th Amendment Act 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam)

Passage

Step	Date (2023)	Detail
Introduced in Lok Sabha as the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill	19 September	First Bill introduced in the new Parliament building [2]
Passed by Lok Sabha	20 September	454–2 [2]
Passed by Rajya Sabha	21 September	214–0 [2]
President's assent	28 September	Became the 106th Amendment Act

• Special majority (Art. 368): an amendment Bill needs this in each House. It means a majority of the House's total membership and two-thirds of the members present and voting.
• No joint sitting: if the two Houses disagree on an amendment Bill, there is no joint sitting to settle it.

New Articles

Article	What it does
330A	Reserves seats for women in the Lok Sabha, including one-third of the SC and ST seats
332A	Same rule for state legislative assemblies
239AA(2)(ba)	Same rule for the Delhi Legislative Assembly
334A	Sets when the reservation starts, how long it lasts and how seats rotate

Key features

• "As nearly as may be" one-third of seats filled by direct election are reserved. This includes one-third of the seats already reserved for SCs and STs [2].
• Trigger (Art. 334A):
• The census taken after the Act must first be published [2].
• Then a delimitation follows. Delimitation means redrawing constituency boundaries and fixing which seats are reserved.

• Only after that does the reservation start. (NCERT simply says "33 percent reservation" and leaves out this condition.)

• Rotation: reserved seats rotate after each delimitation, roughly once every 10 years [2].

• Duration: 15 years from the start. Parliament can extend it by law.
• What it leaves out:
• There is no OBC sub-quota, because the Constitution has no OBC reservation in legislatures at all.
• The Rajya Sabha and state legislative councils are not covered [3]. Their members are elected indirectly, not by voters directly.

Local bodies compared with legislatures

Feature	Local bodies (Arts. 243D/243T)	Legislatures (106th Amendment)
Share	Not less than 1/3 (50% in 21 states)	As nearly as may be 1/3
Chairpersons	Covered	Not applicable
Start	Immediate (1992–93)	After census and delimitation
Duration	Permanent	15 years, extendable
States can raise it	Yes	No (a fixed constitutional share)

6. The timing debate and the 131st Amendment Bill 2026

• The reservation now depends on Census 2027, which is also the first census since 1931 to count caste (verify current), and on the delimitation that follows it.
• Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026: introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 April 2026 together with the Delimitation Bill 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026 [4][5].
• It would have amended Arts. 81, 82 and 170 so that Parliament could choose which census to use for delimitation and when to hold it [5].
• The Delimitation Bill named the 2011 census as the base for the next delimitation [4].
• It would have raised the Lok Sabha ceiling from 550 to 850: states from 530 to 815, and UTs from 20 to 35 [5].
• It would have ended the freeze on seat shares at the 1971 census, which the 42nd Amendment (1976) first imposed. Seats would again follow population [4][5].
• It would have amended Art. 334A to delink women's reservation from the census taken after 2023 [5].
• The UT Bill would have extended this to Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir [4].

• Goal: women's reservation in time for the 2029 Lok Sabha election [5].

• Result: the Lok Sabha negatived (rejected) the Bill on 17 April 2026 because it did not get the special majority. The two companion Bills became infructuous, meaning they no longer served any purpose, and were not taken up [4][5].

• So the 2023 timeline stands: Census 2027, then delimitation, then reservation (verify current).

• Open questions:

• North–south balance: delimitation by population would give more seats to the populous northern states.
• OBC women's share is still not addressed.
• Real effect: the panchayat evidence shows both better policy outcomes (drinking water) and proxy rule. Reserved seats alone may not be enough.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 243D → women's reservation in panchayats. Art. 243T → in municipalities. Both say "not less than one-third", a floor that states may raise.
• The 106th Amendment Act 2023 was introduced as the 128th Amendment Bill. The bill number and the Act number differ. This is a common trap.
• The 106th Amendment inserted Arts. 330A, 332A, 334A and 239AA(2)(ba). It inserted no Article for the Rajya Sabha or legislative councils.
• The reservation covers the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and the Delhi assembly. It does not cover the Rajya Sabha, legislative councils or OBC women.
• The Geeta Mukherjee JPC examined the 81st Amendment Bill 1996.
• The 108th Amendment Bill 2008 was passed by the Rajya Sabha (9 March 2010) and lapsed in 2014.
• Votes: 454–2 in the Lok Sabha and 214–0 in the Rajya Sabha. Assent: 28 September 2023. Duration: 15 years, extendable by Parliament.
• The 131st Amendment Bill 2026 proposed a Lok Sabha ceiling of 850 and delimitation on the 2011 census. It was negatived on 17 April 2026.
• Local bodies today: about 14.5 lakh elected women, about 46% of all local representatives.

Mains Points

• For reservation: women's voting has been equal since 1950, but their seat share stayed low: about 15% in the 17th Lok Sabha and about 9% in assemblies. Panchayat evidence (Chattopadhyay–Duflo 2004) shows that women leaders change spending priorities, so a quota can make policy fairer.
• Design problems:
• Rotation weakens constituency work and re-election: only about 15% of women won again after de-reservation.
• Leaving out the Rajya Sabha and legislative councils, and having no OBC sub-quota, keeps the "quota within quota" dispute alive.

• Proxy rule (sarpanch-pati) shows that a seat does not always bring real power. Training, party tickets and support are also needed.

• Delay and federalism: tying the reservation to census and delimitation postpones it to after Census 2027. The failed 131st Amendment Bill 2026 shows the trade-off. Starting earlier meant reopening the 1971 freeze and the north–south balance of seats.

• Reforms:
• Delink women's reservation from delimitation through political consensus.
• Make parties give women a mandatory share of tickets.
• Consider longer reservation cycles, such as two terms per seat.
• Cover the Rajya Sabha and legislative councils, as the Geeta Mukherjee JPC suggested.