Political Reservation for Women: The (Un)making and Futures of the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023

This article attempts to contextualise the issue of political reservation for women and trace the decadal shifts in articulation of this demand over 27 years, that is, since 1996, when it was first introduced as the 81st Amendment and defeated, until its passage as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023. The wider contexts of the struggles for women’s rights to voice, visibility, and equality; the implementation of reservation for women with internal reservation for women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the 73rd and 74th Amendments; and the recommendations of the Mandal Commission and later the Sachar Committee guide us in historicising this moment and refusing its rhetorical appropriation by any particular political party. This context is examined through a close reading of parliamentary debates and reports of parliamentary committees in 1996–1997 and 2009–2010 and a brief glimpse at the other backward classes and Muslim feminist engagements within larger movements for equal citizenship.