India’s Lower House Fails to Pass Women’s Reservation Bill
- India's lower house of Parliament has failed to pass a bill to implement reservation of a third of seats for women lawmakers.
- The Constitution Amendment Bill, which aimed to modify the women's reservation law and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for the 2029 general election, was defeated after...
- The bill was part of a package of three bills introduced by the government at the start of a three-day special extension of Parliament's Budget Session.
India’s lower house of Parliament has failed to pass a bill to implement reservation of a third of seats for women lawmakers.
The Constitution Amendment Bill, which aimed to modify the women’s reservation law and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for the 2029 general election, was defeated after a vote in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The bill required a two-thirds majority to pass but fell short, with 298 members voting in support and 230 voting against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill needed 352 votes for approval.
The bill was part of a package of three bills introduced by the government at the start of a three-day special extension of Parliament’s Budget Session. The other two bills were the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, which were intended to implement the proposed women’s quota act in Union territories including Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the proposed amendment, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased from the current 543 to a maximum of 850 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. Seats in state and Union Territory assemblies were also to be increased to accommodate the 33 percent reservation for women.
The defeat of the Constitution Amendment Bill means the government is unlikely to proceed with the other two bills, as they are dependent on the passage of the constitutional change. The bill’s failure marks a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to redraw voting boundaries alongside the seat quota for women.
The Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, was first introduced in 1996 and has faced repeated delays in Parliament. The current effort to pass the bill through a constitutional amendment gained momentum after being reintroduced in 2023, but the latest vote in the Lok Sabha has stalled its progress.