Congress President Rahul Gandhi today announced that if voted to power, Congress would pass the Women Reservation Bill which provides for 33% reservations for women in Parliament and all state assemblies. He further promised that 33% government jobs would be reserved for women.
The promise have created lot of interest among media and public, with many asking whether Mr. Gandhi is serious about the promise. A brief recap of the history of the bill would tell us that Indian National Congress have always been serious about the Women Reservation Bill.
About The Women Reservation Bill And Brief Timeline
The Bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. Introduced by the UPA-I government in May 2008, it also provides that one third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups.
In 1996 it was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government. From the year 1998-2003 the NDA government failed to pass the bill despite having support of the Left and Congress.
In 2004 UPA’s Common Minimum Programme stated that “the UPA government will take the lead to introduce legislation for one-third reservations for women in the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha.”
In the year 2008 the Congress government tabled the 108th Constitution Amendment Bill in Rajya Sabha amidst protests and disruptions to prevent it from lapsing in case of change of government. In the month of May the Bill was referred to the Standing Committee and the Standing Committee submitted its report.
In February 2010 the Union Cabinet approved the Bill. In March 2010 the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill in a historic move by the Parliament.
The BJP in 2014 promised in its manifesto to pass and implement the Women Reservation Bill.
Congress has repeatedly shown full commitment to the bill. In 2016 Sonia Gandhi spoke in the Lok Sabha in a special intervention on Women’s Day and in September 2017 she wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi urging him to pass the Bill assuring him of full support from the Congress. Rahul Gandhi too wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi in July 2018, assuring him of Congress support for the Women Reservation Bill.
Despite having a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP government has evaded the issue of Women Reservation in the Parliament. While the incumbent government has made many tall promises for women, ran several ad campaigns on “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi posed himself as the saviour of Muslim women by passing the Triple Talaq bill in lightening speed, he failed to keep his poll promise of passing the reservation bill.
It is time for Indian women to chose the party that walks the talk. Join the #ThisBillWillPass campaign on Twitter and show your support.
