Telangana women’s groups oppose linking quota to delimitation

Telangana women's organisations and secular parties call for immediate implementation of the 33% reservation law by delinking it from Census, delimitation and seat expansion.

Hyderabad: Women’s rights organisations, feminist groups, secular political parties and social activists from across Telangana came together in Hyderabad on Saturday, June 27, to demand the immediate and unconditional implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, providing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies.

The consultation, attended by around 100 participants and organised in solidarity with the National Coalition for Women’s Reservation (NCWR), issued a united call for the implementation of the law by delinking it from the Census and delimitation processes. Participants argued that women’s political representation should not be made contingent upon exercises that remain uncertain and politically contentious.

The gathering also opposed attempts to link women’s reservations with parliamentary seat expansion, warning that such measures could undermine India’s federal structure and distort regional representation. Speakers maintained that the reservation law could be implemented at the present strength of Parliament and State Assemblies without any expansion of seats.

Historical struggle

Delivering the keynote address, senior academics and activists Prof. Shantha Sinha and Prof. Rama Melkote situated the demand within the decades-long struggle for women’s political representation in India. They underlined the transformative impact that greater representation of women, particularly those from marginalised communities, could have on governance and public policy.

The speakers observed that women have made significant contributions across all spheres of public life and stressed that there should be no further delay in implementing a law that has already been passed by Parliament. They argued that constitutional rights and democratic representation required immediate action rather than further procedural hurdles.

Representatives from various political parties, including the Congress, BRS, TRS, Telangana Jana Samithi, BSP and Left parties, expressed concern over the delay in operationalising the legislation enacted through the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023.

Delay concerns

Speakers noted that although the law was passed in 2023, the Union Government issued the Gazette notification bringing the Act into force only on April 16, 2026. They criticised what they described as the contradiction between publicly celebrating the legislation as the “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam” while simultaneously delaying its implementation.

Participants also accused the Centre of attempting to use women’s reservations to justify an expansion of parliamentary seats through the proposed Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill during the Special Session of Parliament held in April this year.

The consultation congratulated democratic and secular political forces that opposed the proposal, arguing that linking women’s reservations to a massive expansion of Lok Sabha seats would threaten federalism and create severe imbalances in representation between northern and southern states.

Inclusive representation

Members of independent women’s organisations, labour unions, minority groups, transgender collectives and student movements participating in the consultation argued that while the present legislation does not explicitly provide reservations for OBC women, there has been insufficient political will even to implement the law in its existing form.

They said the provisions linking implementation to Census and delimitation had effectively placed women’s political rights on indefinite hold. Participants called for a constitutional amendment removing these conditions and also demanded the removal of the law’s 15-year sunset clause.

The consultation further argued that the process of identifying constituencies to be reserved for women should be participatory and transparent, involving states, communities and women’s organisations rather than being centrally determined.

Campaign plans

Participants emphasised that adequate safeguards would be required to ensure meaningful representation for Dalit, Adivasi, nomadic and denotified tribes, OBC, minority women, women with disabilities, transgender women and persons belonging to other marginalised genders.

They pointed to the experience of reservations in local self-government institutions under the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments as evidence that decentralised frameworks for political representation could be successfully implemented and expanded.

The consultation resolved that a delegation of women’s rights activists would meet the Chief Minister and the Minister for Women and Child Welfare to seek a resolution in the upcoming monsoon session of the Telangana Assembly, supporting immediate implementation of the Act without linking it to delimitation or parliamentary expansion.

The campaign also plans to reach out to MPs, MLAs, ministers and political parties across Telangana while expanding public mobilisation efforts through district-level campaigns and outreach programmes ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament.

Participants further announced that they would work alongside voter rights organisations to ensure that women and marginalised gender groups are not disenfranchised through electoral roll revision exercises.

Held at Maqdoom Bhavan in Himayatnagar, Hyderabad, the consultation was co-facilitated by feminist activists Sajaya K and Meera Sanghamitra on behalf of the Women and Transgender Organisations Joint Action Committee and the All India Feminist Alliance, a press release informed.