When Parliament passed the Women’s Reservation Act in September 2023, millions of Indian women believed that their moment had finally arrived. The next Commission will be far more complex, reallocating seats among States for the first time since 1976 while implementing women’s reservation simultaneously. Without a new constitutional amendment removing the Census-delimitation linkage, women’s reservation cannot be implemented in 2029. The first Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced in 1996. Second, the Act provides no sub-reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) women, even though Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women receive proportional sub-quotas.

Source: The Hindu February 22, 2026 19:48 UTC