India’s Women’s Reservation Bill: A 30-Year Journey from Parliament’s Margins to Its Centre
IntroductionFew pieces of legislation in India’s post-independence history have travelled as far, fallen as many times, and returned as persistently as the Women’s Reservation Bill. First introduced in Parliament in 1996, the bill seeking to reserve one-third of seats in India’s legislature for women spent nearly three decades being introduced, disrupted, shelved, lapsed, revived, and deferred — a legislative saga that became as much about India’s political fault lines as it was about gender equality.In September 2023, the bill finally crossed its highest hurdle when it was passed by both houses of Parliament and signed into law by President Droupadi Murmu, becoming the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, officially named the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. But the story did not end there. The Act came with a critical condition: the reservation would only take effect after a fresh national census and the subsequent delimitation of constituencies. That condition sparked a fresh chapter of political conflict, and in April 2026, a government attempt to accelerate implementation was defeated in the Lok Sabha, pushing the effective realisation of women’s reservation into a future that remains uncertain.What follows is the full account of this bill’s journey — its origins, its repeated failures, its historic passage in 2023, and where things stand today.The Pre-Legislative History: Why the Demand AroseIndia’s Constitution, adopted in 1950, guarantees universal adult franchise and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Yet from the very first general election, women remained dramatically underrepresented in Parliament and state legislatures. The question of reserving seats for women was actually debated in the Constituent Assembly as early as 1946, but members, including prominent women leaders like Hansa Mehta, argued against it. Their position rested on the belief that universal franchise would, over time, correct historical imbalances on its own.Fifty years later, that belief had only been partially realised. By the mid-1990s, women constituted barely 6.5 percent of Lok Sabha membership. The state assemblies fared no better, with many registering single-digit female representation for decades.Meanwhile, India had taken decisive steps in the other direction at the local governance level. In 1992, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao’s government passed the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, which mandated 33.3 percent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions. The results were transformative. Women went on to constitute over 46 percent of elected representatives at the grassroots level, totalling more than 1.4 million women in elected local governance roles across India.The Panchayati Raj experiment demonstrated what reservation could achieve at scale. It also strengthened the argument that structural barriers, not a lack of capable women, explained the gap between the grassroots and Parliament.Seven Attempts: The Legislative History from 1996 to 2026First Attempt: 1996The first formal bill was introduced on September 12, 1996, as the Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill under the United Front government led by Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda. It was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee chaired by Communist Party of India leader Geeta Mukherjee, who reviewed the bill extensively, but no consensus emerged. The bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 11th Lok Sabha.Within minutes of its introduction, the bill ran into fierce opposition. Male MPs questioned whether reservation could produce “enough capable women.” OBC leaders from parties like the RJD and SP demanded a sub-quota for women from backward communities within the 33 percent — a demand that would become the bill’s recurring stumbling block for the next three decades.Second and Third Attempts: 1998 and 1999The second attempt was in 1998 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, when then Law Minister M. Thambidurai introduced it. Opposition parties, especially the RJD and SP, strongly opposed it, demanding a quota within a quota for OBC reservation. The bill lapsed again when the 12th Lok Sabha was dissolved. The third attempt was in 1999 when the Vajpayee government tried again. Both times it failed to progress. The Vajpayee government required the support of Congress and other parties to secure the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment, and that support was conditional or absent.Fourth and Fifth Attempts: 2002 and 2003Two more attempts during the Vajpayee era met the same fate. The pattern was now clear: no government had been able to build the two-thirds parliamentary consensus necessary for a constitutional amendment on this issue.The 2008 Bill and the 2010 Rajya Sabha PassageThe United Progressive Alliance government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduced a revised version of the bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2008. The most significant legislative progress came in 2010, where the bill secured the mandated two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha with 186 votes in favour. In 2010, the bill’s passage in Parliament was derailed after Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal MPs tore documents amid loud protests. The then UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was unable to pass the bill in the face of resistance from allies.Despite the Rajya Sabha approval, the UPA government never brought the bill to the Lok Sabha floor. It was repeatedly deferred, with the government citing a lack of consensus among coalition partners. When the 15th Lok Sabha was dissolved in 2014, the bill lapsed for the fifth time.The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam: How the 2023 Bill Was PassedA Special Session in the New Parliament BuildingOn September 18, 2023, the government called a special session of Parliament. The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023, was introduced in Lok Sabha on September 19, 2023 during the special session of Parliament. The bill was the first to be considered in the new Parliament building.The political backdrop was significant. The BJP-led NDA held a strong parliamentary majority on its own, making it the first time any government in Indian history had the independent parliamentary strength to push through a constitutional amendment of this kind without depending on opposition cooperation.The Lok Sabha Vote: September 20, 2023The Lok Sabha took up the bill for debate on September 20, 2023. The discussion saw broad cross-party support in