Article 330A is a constitutional provision inserted into the Constitution of India by the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Its purpose is to reserve seats for women in the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The provision originated from a long-standing political problem of low female representation, with the first attempt to introduce a similar bill occurring in 1996.
The mechanism of Article 330A mandates that seats shall be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha. Specifically, one-third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the Lok Sabha must be reserved for women. Furthermore, one-third of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) under Article 330 must also be reserved for women belonging to those respective groups. The reserved seats will be allotted by rotation to different constituencies.
This new article connects directly to Article 332A, which provides for similar one-third reservation for women in the State Legislative Assemblies, and an amendment to Article 239AA for the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The implementation of Article 330A is a key recent change, as it was inserted in 2023. However, the reservation will only come into effect after the next census is published and a subsequent delimitation exercise is completed. The reservation is stipulated to be in force for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of the Act, as specified in the related Article 334A.