Modi pushing to get more women into India's Parliament

NEW DELHI, April 16, (AP): India’s Parliament opened debate Thursday on a landmark bill to reserve one-third of legislative seats for women, which could set off a sweeping redrawing of voting boundaries that could sharpen political tensions nationwide. If passed, the bill would fast-track a 2023 law mandating 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

It would be one of the most consequential shifts in political representation since India’s independence and potentially widen female participation in a system where women remain underrepresented. The quota, however, is linked to a controversial separate bill to change voting boundaries, a process that could increase the number of seats in the lower house from 543 to about 850.

While there appears to be a broad bipartisan support for putting more women into Parliament, opposition parties have raised concerns over changing voting boundaries, warning it could tilt the political balance in favor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The bills are being taken up during a three-day special session of Parliament and will require a two-thirds majority in both houses to pass.

Several Asian countries, including India’s neighbors like Nepal and Bangladesh, have similar quotas for women in national legislatures. India already mandates that one-third of seats be set aside for women in local governance bodies, but women currently hold only about 14% of seats in the lower house of Parliament.

The quota could bring hundreds more women into legislative politics, which supporters say could redirect policy attention toward women’s health, education and gender-based violence. It is unclear how seats would be allocated to women in an expanded Parliament. Ranjana Kumari, a women’s rights advocate, said the move would make India’s "democracy truly representative" and force political parties to field more female candidates.

"(The) door is little open. Women will enter and fill the room slowly,” Kumari said. For many young Indian women, the change also carries symbolic weight. Pranita Gupta, a 23-year-old law graduate, said it will instill "a sense of confidence that we can participate in politics and we can be part of Parliament not only as an exception but as well as a norm.”