WOMEN'S RESERVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIAN POLITICS

Abstract

A major crossing point in the history of the Indian constitutional democracy and gender equality is represented by the enactment of the constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act 2023, which is Officially titled as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. This mandate the 33% affirmative action quota for women in the Lok Sabha , state legislative assembly, and the legislative assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The legislative Look forward to dismantle the continuous institutional gatekeeping and historical underrepresentation. However, the real world application of the act remains structurally related to the completion of a post enactment population census and a subsequent exercise of delimitation under the article 334A. The year of 2026 was marked by an important moment when the government introduced the constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, alongside the Delimitation Bill,2026 , which was an attempt to bypass the census delay, which meant the expansion of Lok Sabha seats to 850 seats by using the census data of 2011 and fast track the 33% reservation for the general election of year 2029. The constitutional framework reverted to its original path, with the national population enumeration officially commencing in late 2026 because the 131st Amendment failed to secure a two-third special majority in the Lok Sabha. Utilizing an interdisciplinary framework which comprises of comparative constitutional law, political sociology and fiscal federalism, this paper analysis the political, structural and socio-legal dimension of the Women’s Reservation Act. It also examines the historical trajectory of the bill, constitutional mechanism, the inter sectional debates surrounding SC/ST sub-quota and the exclusion of the OBC, the federal dynamics of the North-South seat reallocation, also the lessons drawn from the thirty years of local self governance quota under the 73rd and 74th constitutional Amendments. Ultimately, the paper argues that while the descriptive quotas are the necessary legal mechanism to disrupt power of the patriarchal structures, substantive transformation depends on political party reform internally, capacity building of the institution, and overcoming the friction between federal equity and representation of the demography.