Speaking in the Lok Sabha during a special session of Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the opposition that those who opposed reservation for women had not been forgiven by women across the country and that they would “pay the price for a long time”.
“Those who oppose the Women’s Quota Bill will pay the price for a long time,” PM Modi said, noting that “ever since women’s reservation was discussed, those who opposed it in the past have not forgiven the women of the country and ended badly in the elections that followed.”
Intervening in the Lok Sabha debate on three bills that seek to amend the Women’s Quota Act and set up a Delimitation Commission, Prime Minister Modi said if all parties supported the proposals, the outcome would benefit the nation rather than serving one political group.
The prime minister said: “Let’s all MPs not miss this important opportunity to give reservations to women. I have come to appeal to you not to see this from a political point of view, it is a decision in the national interest.”
“Today we brought it to a mature stage”
PM Modi said that the initiative of reservation for women should have been implemented when it was first proposed 25-30 years ago, adding that it has now been brought to a more mature stage.
He further stated that these measures are improved over time in accordance with evolving needs, which he described as a strength of democracy. Referring to India as the “mother of democracy”, he said that the country’s democratic system has evolved over thousands of years and that members of the House now have a valuable opportunity to contribute a new chapter to this ongoing journey.
“The need was that when this idea was first conceived 25-30 years ago and the need was felt, we should have implemented it and today we have brought it to a mature stage. It is also improved from time to time as per the need and that is the beauty of democracy. Ours is the mother of democracy. Our democracy has been the path of development for thousands of years and we all have a new dimension to this development in this house,” he added. he said.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which seeks to amend the Women’s Quota Act, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a split vote.
Apart from this, two other Bills, the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were also introduced to facilitate the implementation of the revised provisions on reservation for women in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
The bills were tabled earlier after an intense 40-minute debate, after which the opposition demanded a split vote to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill. The bill was subsequently tabled, with 251 members voting in favor and 185 against.
Several Asian countries, including India’s neighbors such as Nepal and Bangladesh, have introduced similar quotas for women in their national legislatures. In India, a third of seats in local governing bodies are already reserved for women, but women currently make up only about 14% of seats in the lower house of parliament.
