Women's Bill passed in Rajya Sabha - india news

The upper house of India's parliament has approved a bill to reserve a third of all seats in the national parliament and state legislatures for women.

The bill was passed with 186 members of the 245-seat house voting in favour. Only one member voted against. Several smaller parties boycotted the vote.

The bill was introduced on Monday amid uproar from opponents, resulting in the suspension of seven MPs on Tuesday.

First proposed in 1996, the bill now has support from India's main parties.


At present women make up just 10% of the lower house (Lok Sabha) of parliament, and significantly fewer in state assemblies.

Sonia Gandhi, Congress party president, has said she attaches the "highest importance" to the proposals and passing them would be a "gift to the women of India".

This bill needed the support of two-thirds of voters present in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) for it to be passed.

The proposals will be tabled in the lower house at a later date. An overwhelming majority there support the move, correspondents say.

The bill has the support of the governing Congress-led UPA alliance, the BJP-led NDA alliance and left-wing parties.

'Shameful'

But the bill's passage through the upper house has been marked by scenes of chaos since it was tabled on Monday.

An opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitely, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, said the uproar was "one of the most shameful moments of India's parliamentary democracy".

Earlier, seven MPs had been forcibly removed from the upper house by security guards, after they refused to leave having been suspended for disorderly behaviour.

The MPs had shouted slogans, snatched papers from Vice President Hamid Ansari's table, torn them and thrown them at him.

More