Govt says 106th Constitutional Amendment Act to be effective from April 16

Originally passed with broad political consensus by Parliament in September 2023, the amendment's operational start was tied to two significant preconditions: the completion of the next national census and a subsequent delimitation exercise to redraw constituency boundaries. This framework meant that the actual reservation of seats would have been delayed for several years, potentially until 2034, as the census originally due in 2021 has not yet been completed. The April 16 notification is a critical legal step that formally incorporates the amendment into the Constitution, a necessary precursor to any further legislative changes aimed at expediting its rollout.

Coinciding with this announcement, the government has introduced a new package of bills in Parliament designed to accelerate the timeline for implementation to the year 2029. This legislative push includes the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, and a new Delimitation Bill, 2026. The core objective of these bills is to delink the women's reservation from a future census and instead authorize the use of population data from the 2011 Census for the required delimitation process. This would allow a new Delimitation Commission to begin its work sooner, redrawing electoral maps in time for the 2029 general elections.

The proposed legislation is not without controversy and has significant implications for India's federal structure. While there is widespread support for the principle of women's reservation, a policy debated for nearly three decades, the connection to delimitation has raised concerns, particularly among southern states. These states have been more successful in implementing population control measures over the past few decades. They fear that a delimitation based on population could lead to a reduction in their number of parliamentary seats and a corresponding loss of political influence to the more populous northern states. The government's proposal also involves increasing the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha.

The path forward now depends on the passage of the new bills currently before Parliament. If the legislation is approved, a Delimitation Commission will be established to undertake the complex task of redrawing constituencies and identifying the seats to be reserved for women, which will include a sub-quota for women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The reserved seats are intended to be rotated after each subsequent delimitation exercise. This week's developments mark a pivotal moment, transforming a long-held aspiration for greater female political representation into a tangible, albeit complex, legislative and administrative challenge.