- The Modi administration intends to give women a one-third seat in state and parliamentary assemblies
- It is anticipated that the reservation will be implemented during the Lok Sabha elections in 2029
According to The Indian Express, the Modi-led Union government intends to begin implementing a one-third reservation for women in state assemblies and Parliament with the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. This action is considered a significant step toward gender equality in political representation and is connected to the impending Census and the delimitation process.
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, passed in 2023, mandates that a third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures be reserved for women. However, its implementation requires a delimitation exercise based on data from the next Census.
The Census has been announced, according to a government source cited in the report. There will be more actions. Delimitation is connected to the women's reservation bill. Our goal is to implement it during the upcoming election.
The next census in India, which will include a caste and population count, is expected to be finished by March 1, 2027, according to the Union government. The delimitation process, which redraws the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies, must be finished prior to the announcement of the general election in 2029 in order for the women's reservation to go into effect.
The relationship between delimitation and the Census, however, is a topic of political debate. Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin accused the center of lowering the state's parliamentary representation through a delayed census. He pointed out that the Constitution mandates delimitation after the first Census after 2026 and criticized the 2027 Census date as a purposeful postponement.
Stalin, who was also the leader of the DMK, said that the BJP's action might reduce Tamil Nadu's seat share and asked for clarification on the date of the caste census. He also accused Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the leader of the AIADMK, of "complicity in this betrayal" due to his alliance with the BJP.
