The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023 was defeated on the floor of Parliament. The combined opposition raised the issue of the government laying an electoral trap for the non-Hindi-speaking states of the East and South, on delimitation and OBC reservation based on population figures. They even questioned the timing of the bill, given that assembly elections are being held in Tamil Nadu and Bengal. It was the view that delimitation was mixed up with the issue of women’s reservation and the silence on OBC reservation. This entailed a caste census across the country and reservations based on actual figures. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed last week on the Jayanti of B. R. Ambedkar, Parliament is reconvening a special session to “discuss and hopefully pass an important constitutional amendment relating to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.” Yet, as this historic legislation approached, predictable politics ensued. This defining moment must not be analysed through the reductive, imported lens of Western “women’s empowerment,” a framework that too often positions women as fragile recipients of the state’s moral benevolence. Instead, we must recognise this as the institutionalisation of “Nari Shakti”, a distinctly Indian ethos that views women as the inherent driving force of societal progress. The introduction of these bills is not politics or a sudden administrative pivot timed for electoral optics. Rather, it is the zenith of a decade-long continuum, signalling a profound transition from the archaic notion of women’s development to an era of unyielding womenled development.
BEYOND VIRTUE SIGNALLING
Contemporary political discourse is frequently bogged down by virtue signalling, where grand, performative declarations mask a tragic absence of structural reform. To view the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, and the subsequent 2026 legislative framework designed to enact it, as an isolated manoeuvre is to fundamentally misread the modern Indian political landscape. This legislative milestone is the crowning achievement of a comprehensive policy architecture designed by the Modi government to support and elevate women throughout their life cycles. True participation in a democratic polity cannot be mandated from the top down if the foundational layers of a woman’s life are consumed by the sheer struggle for survival. Therefore, the continuum of action deliberately began by addressing the most visceral, daily indignities faced by Indian women. Historically, in rural and semi-urban areas, securing basic necessities was a gruelling battle. For women, especially, the burden was double and triple. They were forced to walk long distances for water and inhale hazardous smoke from wood-fired kitchens. The distribution of over 10 crore LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana effectively freed millions of women from the severe respiratory hazards of indoor air pollution. Simultaneously, the Jal Jeevan Mission alleviated the immense physical burden of fetching water by providing clean tap water to over 14 crore families, thereby, fundamentally nurturing maternal and familial health. Furthermore, by ensuring that women hold sole or joint titles to 72% of the 25 million rural homes constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the government has rightfully recognised the intrinsic link between secure housing, physical safety, and financial agency. The Swachh Bharat Mission’s construction of over 12 crore toilets directly protected women from health infections, the threat of animal attacks, and the indignity of waiting for the dark of night to relieve themselves. By systematically removing the exhausting drudgery from daily life, the state laid the necessary groundwork for genuine socio-economic mobility.
FROM DIGNITY TO ECONOMIC VANGUARD
With baseline dignity secured, the policy machinery shifted its focus toward educational parity, social justice, and financial independence. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative initiated a massive societal mobilisation against gender discrimination, tackling the darkest aspects of sex selection at birth. The results of this cultural shift are starkly evident in our demographic data: for the first time in India’s recorded history, the national sex ratio of the total population reached 1020 women per 1000 men. Financial security for the next generation was institutionalised early through the opening of 3.2 crore Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts for young girls. In higher education, the narrative of female exclusion has been dismantled, with women now comprising 43% of STEM graduates in India, a figure that stands as one of the highest in the world. In the economic sphere, women have transitioned from the invisible margins to the vanguard of the national economy. Under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), 69% of loans have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs, while 84% of beneficiaries under the Stand-Up India scheme are women. At the grassroots level, the mobilisation of over 10 crore women into self-help groups has formed the bedrock of localised economic resilience. Simultaneously, the state acted decisively to enforce legal and professional dignity. By criminalising the arbitrary practice of instant Triple Talaq, the state did not merely pass a legal reform; it guaranteed constitutional dignity to Muslim women, dismantling a deeply rooted mechanism of domestic subjugation. Professional barriers were shattered, be it granting permanent commissions to women officers in the Armed Forces or by more than doubling mandatory paid maternity leave (from earlier 12 weeks) to 26 weeks. Such is not politics or rhetoric or opportunism, but an honest acknowledgement of the indispensable need for working mothers to recover and bond with their infants without sacrificing their careers.
MATTER OF CIVILISATIONAL ETHOS
This sweeping array of interventions transcends standard government administration. Instead, they represent the actualisation of the “Idea of Bharat.” In India’s civilizational consciousness, reverence for Nari Shakti is not a modern construct in line with Western feminist movements, but it stands tall as an ancient and intrinsic blueprint for societal harmony and governance. For decades, the post-colonial state relegated women to the status of a vulnerable demographic requiring endless “upliftment” through piecemeal welfare. The current trajectory forcefully corrects this historical aberration. By championing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the state is aligning its contemporary democratic structures with its oldest civilizational truths. When Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserts that the Women’s Reservation is the “rightful due of our Nari Shakti to contribute to policymaking,” he is not making a political pitch but articulating a fundamental restoration of democratic balance. It is the profound realisation that a nation’s development trajectory cannot reach its full, vigorous potential unless the very women anchoring its foundation are actively shaping the policies that govern them.
DISMANTLING THE OPPORTUNISM CRITIQUE
Naturally, a legislative move of this magnitude, particularly one that intersects with the deeply complex Delimitation Bill 2026 to redraw constituencies and allocate reserved seats, attracts severe political pushback. Objections have surfaced from various political corners, often masked as “procedural grievances” regarding the delimitation exercise or legislative timelines. While rigorous parliamentary scrutiny is the lifeblood of our republic, labelling these legislative efforts as “opportunistic” is both historically blind and intellectually dishonest. Opportunism implies a sudden, unrooted grasping for political capital. However, the operationalisation of a 33% parliamentary quota is the logical, structural culmination of a decade spent diligently building female human capital, investing deeply in women’s health, education, housing, and financial independence. Not to mention, this has been a consistent demand that previous governments, for whatever reasons, have chosen to shelve. The accusation of political expediency also falls flat when weighed against the reality of a state that has spent years improving the maternal mortality rate from 130 per lakh live births to 97, ensuring 4.73 crore free antenatal checkups under the PM Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, and creating an environment where almost half of governmentrecognised start-ups are led by women. The administration’s track record of granular, consistent delivery entirely dispels the cynical myth of opportunism.
ARC OF HISTORY
We stand at a fragile yet immensely powerful crossroads in our democratic journey. The 131st Constitution Amendment Bill and its accompanying legislation are not merely about increasing legislative seating capacity but are highly pragmatic vessels through which a historic, systemic imbalance is finally being rectified. As such, it is imperative to recognise the sombre gravity of this juncture. To stall, dilute, or fiercely oppose this civilizational shift under the guise of partisan manoeuvring is to willingly place oneself on the wrong side of history. The women of India, the Nari Shakti that drives our technological innovations, leads our rural self-help groups, and fiercely anchors our families, cannot, and must not, be asked to “wait endlessly” for a seat at the table that duly belongs to them. Women’s reservation of 33% was lost in the polarised electoral politics where issues of caste, language and regions came in. The Southern states have performed much better on all parameters of human development of economic and social development but fear the delimitation would further marginalise them. The only way to address this would be for the government is celebrate diversity and dissent where the confidence in the Indian democratic process would increase. The Women’s Bill brought out these fears to the front which are real and it needs to be addressed. If not these divisions that showed the rupture between regions, castes and languages will further worsen. It is time that the Nari Shakti exposed these fractures which we need to bridge not break. The huge gap between perception and reality needs to be bridged on caste, language and regions and the government needs to go extra mile to remove these fears.
- Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit is the Vice Chancellor of JNU.
