Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha: India set to approve historic women’s quota bill

A bill guaranteeing a third of seats for women in the legislature and state assemblies has been passed by the American parliament’s lower house.

The bill, which was first put forth in 1996, had lain dormant for years due to opposition from some political events.

After days of ferocious discussion, the Lok Sabha passed it on Wednesday with almost unanimous approval.

Legislators in the American parliament’s lower house, Rajya Sabha, will now need to approve the bill.

If approved, it will be sent to the American president and be law if it is passed around.

However, it is still far from being put into practice because doing so would require India’s survey to be completed.

The coronavirus pandemic caused the training, which is held every 10 years, to be postponed from 2021 to 2025.

The implementation of the bill could be further complicated by reports of plans to redesign the boundaries of assemblage seats to raise the total number of constituencies, known as delimitation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ), which is in power at the time, is expected to prosper after the bill is passed in the general elections next year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the lawmakers who supported the act in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He referred to it as” traditional policy” that will increase women’s involvement in politics.

After 454 Lawmakers from across party lines voted in favor of the bill and just two opposed it, it was passed.

The Lok Sabha debated the policy for almost eight hours, with many Opposition members voicing their support while also expressing doubts about its execution.

Sonia Gandhi, a former congressman, stated that while the group supported the proposed legislation, it needed to be put into effect right away.

How long will they have to delay, two, four, or eight centuries? Ms. Gandhi enquired. ” Delaying this would be egregiously unfair to people.”

A number of opposition MPs have also called for a separate quota for women from Other Backward Classes( OBCs ).

According to Hinduism’s caste system, Dalits( previously untouchables ) and Adivasis( tribespeople ) are at the bottom, followed by Brahmins, or priests.

Between are numerous lower and middle castes, known as Other Backward Classes or Tests and estimated to make up approximately 52 % of the community. The people of Dalits and Adivasis has always been counted in India’s population, but OBCs have never been included.

According to the proposed legislation, women will hold one-third of the seats that are currently held by Dalits and tribesmen. However, it does not include a similar sub-quota for people who identify as OBCs.

Ms. Gandhi said the government may carry a class population, or count of OBCs, and expand the benefits of the proposed laws to women from those groups as well when she spoke in parliament on Wednesday.

Another criticism MPs referred to the action as the ruling party’s eyewash.

One of the two lawmakers who opposed the bill, MP Asaduddin Owaisi, claimed that the current legislation would merely favor higher caste women.

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