Women in the Legislatures

In one line

One third of the seats in every panchayat and municipality since 1992, and one third in Parliament and the Assemblies enacted in 2023 and not yet in force.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: article 243D, inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment 1992, requires that not less than one third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every panchayat be reserved for WOMEN, including not less than one third of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, allotted by rotation to different constituencies, and that not less than one third of the offices of CHAIRPERSON at each level be reserved for women. Article 243T does the same for municipalities under the Seventy-fourth Amendment. Articles 330A and 332A, inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act 2023, reserve as nearly as may be one third of the seats in the House of the People and in every State Legislative Assembly for women, including one third of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Article 334A provides that the reservation shall take effect after an exercise of DELIMITATION is undertaken for that purpose after the relevant figures of the first CENSUS taken after the commencement of the Amendment have been published, and shall cease twenty-five years from the commencement.

The local reservation, 1992

Article 243D. Seats are reserved in every panchayat for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the panchayat area; NOT LESS THAN ONE THIRD of the seats so reserved must be reserved for WOMEN of those communities; and not less than one third of the TOTAL number of seats to be filled by direct election in every panchayat, including those reserved for women of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, must be reserved for women. Seats reserved under the article are allotted BY ROTATION to different constituencies. And not less than one third of the total number of offices of Chairperson in the panchayats at each level are reserved for women.

Article 243T. The same scheme for every Municipality, with a further clause allowing the State to make provision for the reservation of offices of Chairperson for the backward classes.

What several States have done. Raised the share from one third to ONE HALF by State law, which article 243D(6) and article 243T(6) permit by allowing the Legislature of a State to make any provision for reservation in favour of backward classes and, in practice, by the general power to legislate on panchayats.

What is measurable about it. More than a million women hold elected local office, which is far more than in any other country, and that is the strongest single fact in favour of reservation as an instrument.