INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
discussion on reservation for women, the long journey of deliberations on the issue in the past decades shows that the demand for
reservation for OBC women has been a contentious point at the centre of the debate for certain parties.The issue of 33% reservation of seats
for women in Parliament and state assemblies has seen many fiery debates both on the floor of the House in Parliament and off it in the
women of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) once the Constitution was amended to allow for reservation for OBCs
It also recommended that reservation be extended to the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils
Neither of these recommendations were incorporated in the 2010 Bill or the latest one
The Constitution does not provide for reservation for OBCs in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.With the Lok Sabha set to discuss the new bill
on Wednesday, here we look at the arguments presented by political parties and recommendations and observations made on the issue of OBC
quota in the reports of the joint parliamentary committee and parliamentary standing committees led by Geeta Mukherjee in 1996 and Jayanthi
Natarajan in 2009 respectively.The parliamentary standing committee on law and justice in its report on the Constitution (108th amendment)
minorities generated great discussion in the Committee, with one section of opinion strongly of the view that such OBC reservation within
reservation should be provided
noted that the Geeta Mukherjee led Committee that looked into the 1996 reservation bill had recommended that the Government may consider the
belonging to OBCs because there is no reservation for them at present under the Constitution as it exists for scheduled castes and scheduled
the views of different political parties on the issue
quota for OBC, minorities including Muslims, Christians and others, and Dalits (SC/ST) within it
the then configuration of the House to highlight there is good representation of OBCs existing on the unreserved seats.In its memorandum,
representatives of CPI (M) said that they do not agree with the demand for extending on OBC women quota as there is no Constitutional
provision for reservation for OBCs
stage in parliamentThe standing committee on law and justice failed to reach a consensus in its final report
Virender Bhatia and Shailendra Kumar (both belonging to the Samajwadi Party) dissented stating that they were not against providing
reservation to women but disagreed with the way this Bill was drafted
One of their demands being that there should be a quota for women belonging to OBCs and minorities.WatchUproar in Lok Sabha as Law Minister
Arjun Ram Meghwal tables Women's Reservation Bill
