4 min readApr 11, 2026 07:02 AM IST First published on: Apr 11, 2026 at 07:02 AM ISTNext week, Parliament will take up the Women’s Reservation Bill in a special session, a historic step by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite efforts, we failed to provide proper representation to women in Indian legislatures in the past 75 years. At the time of our Constitution-making, there were suggestions that, just like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, too, should be given a quota in our legislatures.Prominent women members of the Assembly said women should get genuine equality rather than protective discrimination. “We have never asked for privileges… To seek any form of reservation would be to admit that women are not equal to men,” Hansa Mehta, a member from Bombay, argued. Renuka Ray from Bengal echoed the sentiment. Durgabai Deshmukh from Madras Province opposed special privileges, saying they might hinder rather than promote long-term equality.AdvertisementBehind their rejection was the hope that, by looking at their contributions during the freedom movement, the Indian political system would naturally come forward to offer proper representation. Sadly, we betrayed their hopes and aspirations. Successful Western democracies like the US and UK have demonstrated the will and maturity to provide greater representation for women in their parliaments without any quota system. In the US, the representation of women in Congress was just 2 per cent in 1950. It stands at almost 30 per cent today. In the UK House of Commons, it grew from 3 per cent in the 1950s to 18 per cent in the early 2000s to a commendable 35 per cent today. In India, we began well, with nearly 5 per cent of members in the first Parliament in 1952 being women. This has seen little improvement — in the 2004 Lok Sabha, 9 per cent of MPs were women; this grew to just 14-15 per cent in 2024.The first major success in providing greater representation to women in elected bodies happened through the 73rd and 74th amendments in 1992. Women were provided 33 per cent reservation in village panchayats and municipal bodies. That led to the demand for a similar provision in Parliament and state legislatures. The Deve Gowda-led government made a half-hearted attempt in 1996 to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill. Strong opposition from its own allies forced them to push it to a select committee and bury it there.The Vajpayee government made several attempts during 1998-2004 to introduce the bill. But parties like the Samajwadi Party and the RJD put up resistance, insisting that a 33 per cent quota be earmarked for OBCs within the women’s quota. This was a clear excuse to block the reform because there is no quota for OBCs in the legislature. The Manmohan Singh government got the bill passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. But he developed cold feet and never introduced the Bill in the Lok Sabha, allowing it to lapse in 2014.AdvertisementIt is to PM Modi’s credit that he took the decisive step to pass this bill in both Houses near-unanimously in 2023. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which mandates 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures, was the 106th Amendment to the Constitution. The proposed reservation was to become operational after the delimitation exercise was completed before the general elections in 2029. Determined not to let it lose steam, Modi called for a special three-day session of Parliament from April 16 to give a final shape to the Bill. In an article, he wrote that “when women participate in administration and decision-making, they bring with them experiences and insights that enrich public discourse and improve the quality of governance”.That has been the experience of legislatures that organically achieved higher representation of women, like the US and the UK, and those like Rwanda, Nepal and Tanzania, which have substantial quotas for women. India could have been in the first group. At least it shouldn’t hesitate to be in the second.The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP