Centre sends feelers to Opposition on implementation of Women’s Reservation Bill

Opinion | Parliament’s historic law, an extended wait for women

“We have sent messages informally on this; nothing formal or even suggestions from our side have been shared. If there is a formal movement on this, it will be shared,” a senior source in the government said. The source did not clarify the fate of a delimitation exercise or whether there were any thoughts on the implementation of the Act before the exercise. 

Speaking to reporters at Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on February 15 had stated that the second part of the Budget Session, which began on Monday (March 9, 2026), would be “interesting” as several “important” legislations and a “critical” Bill, would be presented in Parliament for debate and passage. “We will bring some important Bills, including one critical Bill. We will not disclose now as to what the Bill is, but we will bring up one very important business in the second part. We will pass all these Bills,” Mr. Rijiju had said. 

The ambiguity in the timeline of the legislation’s implementation was the main thrust of the Opposition’s criticism during the debate on the law in Parliament. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, speaking during the debate, had said that there was no need to “link women’s reservation with Census and delimitation”. He had criticised the government that by placing these two conditions, the Bill could turn out to be a mere “jumla”. 

Of the total members in the 17th Lok Sabha, 15% are women, while in the State Assemblies, women on average constitute 9% of the total members.