In the recently concluded general elections in the U.K., a record 263 women MPs (40%) have been elected to the House of Commons. The South African National Assembly has around 45% women representation, while the U.S. House of Representatives has 29%. Universal suffrage was achieved in various parts of the world after prolonged political movements. New Zealand as a self-governing unit under British rule was the first to grant universal women's suffrage in 1893. The U.K., itself provided all its women the right to vote only in 1928. The U.S., granted equal voting rights through the nineteenth amendment only in 1920.
India as a sovereign republic provided the right to vote for all its women right from the first general elections in 1952. While the right to vote was provided to all women since the commencement of the Constitution, the representation of women in the Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies has been far from satisfactory. The percentage of women MPs in the Lok Sabha had been very low between 5% and 10% till 2004. It rose marginally to 12% in 2014 and currently stands at 14% in the 18th Lok Sabha. The representation in State Legislative Assemblies is even poorer with the national average being around 9%.

What is the 106th amendment?
As on April 2024, India ranks 143 in the list of countries in the ‘Monthly ranking of women in national parliaments’ published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organisation for national parliaments. The Trinamool Congress has the highest proportion of women MPs in the current Lok Sabha at 38%. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and principal Opposition Congress party have around 13% each. Naam Tamilar Katchi, a State party in Tamil Nadu, has been following a voluntary quota of 50% for women candidates in the last three general elections.

However, voluntary or legislated quotas within political parties are unlikely to yield the desired representation in our country. This is why the Parliament through the 106th constitutional amendment, in September 2023, provided for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies. This would ensure a fair representation of women in legislatures that would increase gender sensitivity in parliamentary processes and legislation. It would also hopefully increase the number of women Ministers in the Centre and States.

This reservation shall come into effect based on the delimitation exercise after the relevant figures of the first Census conducted after the commencement of this Act is published. Hence, the Census which is overdue since 2021 should be conducted without any further delay to ensure that this reservation is implemented starting with the general elections in 2029