While the women’s reservation Bill tabled by the Centre in the just-concluded Special Session of Parliament cleared the legislative hurdles in both Houses with flying colours, some Opposition members did flag some concerns, topping which was the clause in the draft legislation which said the law cannot be implemented without a census and delimitation exercise.
Some leaders in the Opposition even raised doubts behind the Centre’s intent to implement the law, claiming that the census and delimitation will further delay the rollout of the law, which had, for long, featured prominently in the country’s political discourse but could never be implemented.
Amid the political debate around its implementation, an ABP-CVoter survey has thrown up a decisive answer on the question of whether the law should be implemented without a census and delimitation preceding it.
Of the respondents surveyed, including both NDA and Opposition voters, an overwhelming 59.8 per cent said ‘yes’ when asked if the draft law, which has been sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan for Presidential assent, should be implemented immediately.
Another 26.3 per cent respondents answered in the negative to the same question while another 13.9 per cent stated they “don’t know” or “can’t say”.
Significantly, in what may come as a subtle message for the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, 62.4 per cent NDA voters responded in favour of an immediate rollout of the law while 58.2 per cent Opposition voters said they, too, prefer that the draft legislation be implemented at the earliest.
During a debate in the Lok Sabha before the members voted on the Bill’s passage, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the draft legislation shall be implemented only after following due process.
On the question of whether the women’s quota Bill should be implemented in 2029, after the census and delimitation, a combined 45.4 per cent of the respondents said “yes” while 32.3 per cent said “no”.
Significantly, 56.3 per cent NDA voters responded in the affirmative to this question while 37.7 per cent Opposition voters also voted a “yes” to the rollout of the law in 2029.
To the question whether introducing and passing the Bill with the condition of a census and delimitation exercise raises doubts on the government’s intent when it comes to enforcing the law, 40.2 per cent combined respondents voted “yes” while 40.1 per cent voted “no”.
Again, to this question, 53.0 per cent NDA voters said they doubted the Centre’s intent behind tabling and passing the Bill while 31.0 per cent Opposition voters also responded similarly to the same question.
[Disclaimer: This survey was based on CVoter personal interviews conducted among 5,403 adults across India. Sometimes the table figures do not sum to 100 due to the effects of rounding off. The survey was conducted from Saturday to Sunday afternoon. The Margin of error is +/- 3% at the macro level and +/- 5% at the micro level. We believe this will give the closest possible resemblance to the trends.]