Legislative Gender Quotas and Indian Exceptionalism: The Travails of the Women's Reservation Bill

Abstract

In 1996 the Indian government introduced the Constitution (8 1st Amendment) Bill. This bill proposed that 33 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha (national parliament) and in state-level assemblies be reserved for women. In those constituencies, all contesting political parties would only run women candidates. After inconclusive debate, it was referred to a joint select committee, one-third of whose members were women MPs. The committee reported at the end of the year.' Faced with obvious manifestations of opposition, the government decided not to proceed to a vote. Reintroduced by the next government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the 84th Amendment Bill in July 1998, it provoked a stormy session in the house, featuring unprecedented scenes of snatching of papers from the Speaker and the law minister and the virtual coming to blows of members....2 Discussion of the bill stalled without ever going to an initial vote. Presented next (as the 85th Amendment Bill) in December 2000, in a virtual replay of earlier scenes particular party leaders trooped into the well of the chamber. When introduced one further time in May 2003: