"India's Women's Reservation Bill: A Long Overdue Step Towards Gender Equality"
The Union Cabinet has approved the women's reservation bill, which seeks to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. The bill also includes a provision to reserve one-third of seats for women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Currently, women's representation in Parliament and state assemblies is less than 15%, with several states having less than 10% women representation. The bill had previously been passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 but lapsed as it could not be passed by the Lok Sabha.