Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2024: A Complete Guide in 2024

Recent Context

Recently Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam with the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, to provide for one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and the assembly of NCT of Delhi.

Read here a complete guide on Preamble of Indian Constitution

Historical Background

1992: Reservation for women in Panchayats and Municipalities through the 73 and 74 Amendments, respectively.

1996: 81 amendment bill was introduced to reserve 1/3rd of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State assemblies.

1998 & 1999: Similar attempts were made.

2008: The last such attempt was made in 2008 when a Bill for the reservation of women was introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha. Later it lapsed.

Key Provisions of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam

Articles amended

• Article 239AA: Reservation of 1/3rd seats for women in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi.

Articles inserted

• Article 330A and Article 332A: Reservation of 1/3rd seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State respectively. legislative assembly. It also includes reservation of 1/3rd seats for women under seats reserved for SCs/STs under Article 330 and Article 332.
• Article 334A: The Act’s provisions shall come into effect after delimitation following the first census after the commencement of this act.

✓ Sunset clause: Reservation of seats for women shall cease to have effect after the expiration of 15 years. However, it can be extended by the Parliament by law.

✓ Periodic rotation of seats reserved for women after subsequent delimitation. 

✓ The act won’t affect any representation in existing legislative assemblies and Lok Sabha until their dissolution. 

Recently, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Act, 2023 and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Act, 2023 were enacted by the parliament. They seek to reserve 33% of seats for women in the Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry Assembly respectively.

Impact of Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam

• Women empowerment :- Reservation of seats for women will empower them to contest election and position themselves in high positions and legislation.
• Gender neutral policy framing :- Currently only around 14% of MPs are women which results in lower concentration of women upliftment policies and laws in the country.
• Inclusive society – 50% of population consist of women hence it is essential that policy makers should also consist of around 50% women. 
• Global standings – According to recent UN Women data, Rwanda (61%), Cuba (53%), Nicaragua (52%) are the top three countries in women representation. Bangladesh (21%) and Pakistan (20%) as well are ahead of India in case of female representation.

Criticism of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam

The Bill merely reads that it shall come into effect “after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first Census taken after commencement of the Bill is undertaken. It doesn’t specify the cycle of elections from which women will get their due share.

The current Bill does not provide women’s reservation in the Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Councils. The Rajya Sabha currently has lower representation of women than the Lok Sabha. Representation is an ideal that must be reflected in both the Lower and Upper Houses.