Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the passage of the Nari Shakti Adhiniyam or the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lower House of the Parliament was a ‘golden moment of India’s parliamentary journey’.
In his address to the Lok Sabha, he thanked the members of the House who voted in support of the legislation.
“Yesterday was a golden moment of India’s parliamentary journey, and every member of this House and every leader of every political party is a part of that. I thank you all for supporting this Bill,” Modi said.
“…And to complete this sacred work, the way the members of parliament have supported the Bill, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” the PM added.
The Lok Sabha scripted history on Wednesday as it passed the Bill reserving a third or 33% of seats for women in national and state legislatures with an overwhelming majority.
With 454 members in support and only two against, the Bill easily crossed the benchmark of two-thirds support required for constitutional amendments.
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam or the 128th Constitution (Amendment) Bill is all set to be approved by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Modi said that this will further bolster women-led development and will take the nation to new heights in an unimaginable way.
“I thank MPs across party lines who voted in support of this bill. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is historic legislation which will further boost women empowerment and will enable even greater participation of women in our political process,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X (formerly Twitter).
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Right after the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, PM Modi shared a post via X which read, “Delighted at the passage of The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha with such phenomenal support.”
The Bill was introduced by Union minister of state for law & justice Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday.
The long-awaited bill — which will apply to the Lok Sabha, the Delhi legislative assembly and state Houses — also inserted quotas for women within the existing quantum of seats set aside for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, but its implementation might take a few years. If passed into law, political reservation for women will only come into effect after delimitation — an exercise comprising revision of seat numbers and redrawing of constituency boundaries – that can only happen after 2026, and after the relevant census figures are published.
