Article 330A is a provision of the Indian Constitution that mandates the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People (Lok Sabha). This provision was inserted into the Constitution by the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, which is also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. The amendment was enacted to address the long-standing issue of low women's representation in the Parliament, with the first attempt to introduce a similar bill dating back to 1996.
The article stipulates that seats shall be reserved for women in the House of the People. Specifically, as nearly as may be, one-third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the Lok Sabha shall be reserved for women. This one-third reservation includes a sub-quota: one-third of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) under Article 330 shall be reserved for women belonging to those respective groups. The reserved seats will be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a State or Union Territory.
The implementation of Article 330A is contingent, as the reservation will only come into effect after the delimitation is carried out based on the figures of the first census published after the commencement of the 2023 Act. This article is part of a broader legislative change that also inserted Article 332A to provide for women's reservation in State Legislative Assemblies and amended Article 239AA for the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Furthermore, the reservation provisions, as per the newly inserted Article 334A, are set to cease after a period of twenty-five years from the commencement of the Act.