Women's Reservation in Legislatures (106th Amendment)

Women reservation seats in Indian legislatures refer to the constitutional guarantee, introduced through the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, that sets aside a fixed proportion of directly elected seats exclusively for women candidates. The core provision, Article 330A, reserves seats for women in the House of the People (Lok Sabha), building on an earlier and already-functioning model of women's reservation in local government created by the 73rd and 74th Amendments.

Background: Why Reservation for Women Was Sought

Women's representation in India's legislatures has historically remained low. Participation of women in the Lok Sabha has stayed below 10 percent, even though women make up roughly half the population. This gap exists alongside other indicators of disadvantage — a female literacy rate of around 54 percent against 76 percent for men, unequal wages for equal work, and social preference for educating male children over female children. Advocates for reservation argued that without a guaranteed share of seats, women's presence in law-making bodies would continue to lag far behind their share of the electorate.

Reform proposals aimed at political parties themselves were also floated over the years: mandatory internal organisational elections, laws to regulate how parties function internally, a one-third reservation of election tickets for women, state funding of elections to reduce dependence on money power, and sustained public pressure through activism and accountability campaigns. The eventual constitutional route — direct reservation of seats — was a more binding alternative to these party-level reforms.

Article 330A: The 106th Amendment Provision

The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 inserted Article 330A into the Constitution. It provides, in essence:

• Seats shall be reserved for women in the House of the People.
• As nearly as may be, one-third of the total number of seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under Article 330 shall further be reserved for women belonging to those communities.
• As nearly as may be, one-third of the total number of seats filled by direct election to the House of the People — including the seats reserved for SC/ST women counted within that one-third — shall be reserved for women.

In other words, the reservation operates at two layers: a one-third carve-out within the existing SC/ST reserved seats, and a broader one-third reservation across all directly elected seats, with the SC/ST women's seats counted inside that overall one-third rather than added on top of it.

The same amendment also extended a comparable reservation to the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with this provision for Delhi taking effect from 16 April 2026.

Reservation for Women in Local Bodies: The Earlier Model

Before the 106th Amendment, women's reservation had already been tested at the local government level for three decades through the 73rd and 74th Amendments, which inserted Part IX (Panchayats) and Part IXA (Municipalities) into the Constitution with effect from 24 April 1993.

Under both Article 243D and Article 243T, the reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is proportional to their population in the area concerned, and the reservation of seats (as well as the SC/ST-linked reservation of Chairperson offices) ceases to operate after the period specified in Article 334.

The local-body model produced a visible increase in women's presence in elected office: by one account, women have held over 200 Zilla Panchayat Adhyaksha positions, more than 2,000 block or taluka panchayat presidencies, over 80,000 Gram Panchayat Sarpanch positions, more than 30 Mayoral posts in municipal corporations, over 500 Adhyaksha positions in Town Municipalities, and roughly 650 Nagar Panchayats headed by women.

Constitutional Basis: Article 15(3)

Article 15, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, carves out an exception in clause (3): the State is permitted to make special provisions for women and children. This clause is the broader constitutional foundation that supports affirmative measures for women, including reservation, without falling foul of the general non-discrimination guarantee. (Article 15 was later expanded by the 93rd Amendment of 2005, allowing reservation in private unaided educational institutions, and by the 103rd Amendment of 2019, introducing the 10 percent EWS reservation — though these later insertions concern other beneficiary groups, not women specifically.)

What Was Deliberately Excluded

When the Constituent Assembly debated reservation more broadly, demands were also raised — notably from Muslim minority representatives — for proportional representation of religious minorities in legislatures and government services. The framers chose not to extend reservation on religious lines, reasoning that communal electorates and religion-based reservation would perpetuate the communal divisions that had contributed to Partition. Reservation was instead confined to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and (through later amendments) women, rather than religious communities.

Some members, such as Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru, argued during the debates that reservation for backward classes should be time-bound, suggesting a ten-year limit and periodic review of progress rather than indefinite protection. This reasoning is reflected today in Article 334, which fixes an expiry period for SC/ST reservation in legislatures and for the SC/ST/women-linked reservations in local bodies.

Why It Matters

Reservation of seats for women converts a stated commitment to gender equality into a specific, enforceable share of political office. The local-body experience under the 73rd and 74th Amendments is often cited as evidence that guaranteed seats can measurably increase the number of women holding elected office — from Sarpanchas to Mayors — even though the House of the People had not seen a similar reservation until the 106th Amendment inserted Article 330A.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• Article 330A was inserted by which constitutional amendment? (106th Amendment Act, 2023)
• Which articles provide for women's reservation in Panchayats and Municipalities? (Articles 243D and 243T)
• Which article permits special provisions for women under the right to equality? (Article 15(3))
• What amendment introduced the three-tier Panchayati Raj structure with women's reservation? (73rd Amendment, effective 24-4-1993)

Mains

• Discuss the constitutional journey of women's reservation in India from the 73rd/74th Amendments to the 106th Amendment.
• Examine why the Constituent Assembly rejected communal/religious reservation while retaining reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and later women.
• Evaluate whether reservation of seats alone is sufficient to address women's underrepresentation in legislatures, referring to the local-body experience.

FAQ

Q1. What does Article 330A provide? Article 330A, inserted by the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, reserves seats for women in the House of the People, including a one-third reservation within the SC/ST reserved seats and an overall one-third reservation of directly elected seats.

Q2. When did women's reservation in local bodies begin? Women's reservation in Panchayats and Municipalities began with the 73rd and 74th Amendments, both effective from 24 April 1993, under Articles 243D and 243T respectively.

Q3. Does the 106th Amendment cover the Delhi Legislative Assembly? Yes. The same amendment inserted a provision for reservation of seats for women in the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, effective from 16 April 2026.

Q4. What is the constitutional basis for reserving seats specifically for women? Article 15(3) permits the State to make special provisions for women and children, providing the underlying constitutional justification for such reservation.

Q5. Is women's reservation permanent? Reservation for women in Panchayats and Municipalities is tied to the timeframes under Article 334 in the same way as SC/ST reservation in those bodies; details of duration are fixed by the relevant constitutional provisions rather than being open-ended.

Quick Revision

• Article 330A: reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, inserted by the 106th Amendment Act, 2023.
• One-third of SC/ST reserved seats + one-third of all directly elected seats reserved for women.
• 106th Amendment also covers the Delhi Legislative Assembly, effective 16 April 2026.
• Article 243D (Panchayats) and Article 243T (Municipalities): not less than one-third seats reserved for women, in force since the 73rd/74th Amendments (24-4-1993).
• Article 15(3): constitutional basis for special provisions for women.
• Constituent Assembly rejected religious/communal reservation to avoid communal cleavage; reservation limited to SC/ST (and later women).

Sources

• Constitution of India, Article 330A — legislative.gov.in
• Constitution of India, Articles 243D, 243T, 15, 334 — legislative.gov.in
• Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 — legislative.gov.in
• Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 — legislative.gov.in
• Constituent Assembly Debates — official record

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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