India Plans Constitutional Amendments for Women's Reservation, Lok Sabha Expansion

The Indian government is set to introduce constitutional amendments during a special three-day session of Parliament beginning April 16 to implement women's reservation in legislative bodies ahead of the 2029 elections, while also increasing the Lok Sabha's strength from 543 to 816 seats.

The move stems from the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, passed in 2023, which mandates one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies but ties implementation to a new census and delimitation process. To accelerate the timeline and avoid delays from the pending 2027 census, the Union Cabinet approved draft bills on Wednesday to base delimitation on 2011 census data. This will reserve approximately 273 seats for women, including provisions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while excluding quotas for Other Backward Classes. A separate bill will amend the Delimitation Act, and another will extend the changes to Union territories with legislatures, such as Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. The session, extended from the budget period, will run through April 18.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged bipartisan support for the amendments, stating in a recent opinion piece...