Legislation Seeking Women Legislators: Leadership,Agency and a Battle for Empowerment in India

The passage of the Constitution (128^th Amendment) Bill 2023 marks a significant shift in the discourse of women’s empowerment in India. While the Bill may be considered an important move for the representational rights of women, to what extent it contributes to gender justice and women’s empowerment will be a significant matter of enquiry. This article argues that leadership and agency need to be emphasised as significant elements guiding women’s empowerment in the context of India’s patriarchal value paradigm. The Bill should not be considered as an end in itself unless it provides substantial scope for women leaders to exercise political agency within political parties and legislative bodies. Moreover, only a bottom-up approach characterised by quotas within political parties alongside dual-member constituencies is seen as a necessary solution to the limitations of the Bill. In this context, this article critically examines the questions of leadership, agency and women’s empowerment in the context of the Constitution (128^th Amendment) Bill 2023.