TMC to push Women’s Quota Bill in Rajya Sabha in last week of budget session

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all set to bring a motion in the Rajya Sabha for the Women’s Reservation Bill in the last week of the ongoing budget session.

NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all set to bring a motion in the Rajya Sabha for the long-awaited Women’s Reservation Bill in the last week of the ongoing budget session, leaders familiar with the matter said.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien said his party is committed to providing 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies. (File)

The Bill seeks to reserve one-third seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. The TMC’s push for the Women’s Reservation Bill is seen as a political move by the party, which is led by India’s lone woman chief minister Mamata Banerjee and has got 34% women MPs in its parliamentary team.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien said, “My government recognizes the important role our women play in the development of our society and growth of the nation. It is committed to providing 33% reservation to them in Parliament and state legislative assemblies.”

Derek O’ Brien wants to move the motion in the Rajya Sabha as early as Monday under Rule 168 of the Upper House.

The notice, a copy of which is available with HT, says, India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 primarily on account of the significant decline in the share of women among ministers, which halved, from 23% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021. The share currently stands at 14%.”

The notice further says, India’s rank has steadily deteriorated over the years in Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Women in National Parliaments Rankings. In 1998, India ranked 95th. As of March 2022, India ranks 144th out of 184 countries.

“The Union government has its own priorities. It wants to push criminal identification bill and MCD legislation. We are asking them, why women empowerment is not on their agenda?” O’Brien told HT.

The current Lok Sabha has 15% women MPs while the Rajya Sabha has 12.2%. The Trinamool leader argues that it is lower than the global average of 25.5%, adding that only 8% of the total MLAs are women across all states in India.

Last week, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, union law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju said that gender justice is an important commitment of the government and added that Women’s Reservation Bill needs consensus among all political parties before bringing it into Parliament for amendment in the Constitution.

The Women’s Reservation Bill, first introduced in Parliament in 1996, came closest to passage in 2008 when the Rajya Sabha cleared the legislation but the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government didn’t bring it to the Lok Sabha amid a lack of consensus among its allies.