Reservation for women in state legislatures and Parliament: History, need, and the current bill

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Constituent Assembly
Idea of equality was ingrained in the women of newly independent India. The Constituent Assembly debates reflect women were opposed to women’s reservation.

Dakshayani Velayudan, the only Dalit woman member of the Constituent Assembly, had said, “Personally, I am not in favour of any kind of reservation in any place whatsoever”

1970s
By this time, there was a growing disillusionment among women that politics had started reflecting the same biases as the society at large. An exhaustive report of a government appointed committee, titled ‘Status of Women’ and submitted in 1974, was the first to recommend reservation for women in state legislatures and Parliament.

1980s
In 1983, Karnataka became the first state to introduce 25% reservation for women in panchayati raj institutions.

The National Perspective Plan for Women (1988-2000) supported a 30% reservation for women — the first time the figure of one-third came in any government document. In 1988, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi decided to introduce reservation in panchayati raj institutions, but a constitutional amendment bill was blocked by Opposition in 1989

1990sThe 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were passed in 1992 paving the way for reservation in panchayati raj institutions.

A parliamentary committee headed by Geeta Mukherjee recommended 33% reservation for women in legislatures, following which the Women’s reservation bill was introduced in 1996, 1997 and 1999 but could not pass the parliamentary muster. The closest it came to being passed was under Congress-led UPA which introduced the bill in Rajya Sabha in 2008 and passed in 2010.

However, it was not passed in Lok Sabha. The main opposition to the bill was from Mandal parties which demanded