Cabinet's approval to 50% reservation for women in panchayats

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet has given its nod to the recommendation for boosting the reservation for women in Panchayats from the current 33% to 50%. This provision will be applicable to all the seats filled via direct election, office of the Chairpersons and also of the offices reserved for SC/ST.

This statement came from Ms Ambika Soni, the Information and Broadcasting Minister. On NOvember 26, 2009, the Amendment Bill had been unveiled in Lok Sabha. It will also add one change recommended by the Standing Committee on Rural Development that the word 'rural' needs to be incorporated before the word 'population', wherever it takes place in the draft legislation.

The main motive behind adding the word “rural” before “population” is to show appropriate demographic representation of the categories of population for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for whom the reservation is made.