Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla criticised the Union Government on April 15 for its approach to implementing women's reservation, accusing it of a lack of seriousness and expressing concern over its association with delimitation.
Speaking to ANI, Poonawalla stated, “The present Government is absolutely non-serious about bringing in women’s reservation. The first time they amended the Constitution was in September 2023. Since that day, I have been saying, why not give 33% reservation on the existing strength of Parliament. You can do it today.”
He argued that the policy should not be contingent upon processes such as delimitation or the census. “No need of getting into delimitation, no need of getting into the census, no need of trying to change the constituencies and no need of this controversy. Women’s reservation should not be a backdoor to do delimitation and take away the power of the southern states and Maharashtra,” he said.
Expressing concerns regarding regional representation, Poonawalla added, “My state, Maharashtra, we contribute the most to the country economically. We have followed the Union Govt’s guidelines and kept our population under control. Today, we are being punished through this backdoor of women’s reservation. This should not happen.”
He also called for provisions to ensure that the benefits of reservation reach ordinary women rather than relatives of politicians. “In this women’s reservation, make a provision in this Constitutional amendment that this 33% reservation will not be for nepo daughters, sisters, sisters-in-law, wives or girlfriends of politicians. Keep it for the common women, who are politically inclined and want to represent their constituency in Parliament,” he said.
The remarks come amid opposition parties voicing concerns about the proposed Delimitation Bill, which they claim will reduce the representation of southern states in the Lok Sabha. The opposition has also criticised the government’s expedited process of passing the bill before the national census.
Parliament is scheduled to convene special sessions on April 16, 17, and 18 to discuss amendments to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, and the proposed Delimitation Bill aimed at implementing the one-third reservation for women legislators. Both require passage as Constitutional amendments.
The government has proposed increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats to 850 for the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act starting with the 2029 elections. Of these, 815 seats are to be allocated to states and 35 to Union Territories, according to sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on all political parties to support the amendment, expressing confidence that by 2029 women will have stronger representation and greater rights in legislative bodies.