SP MP Dimple Yadav questions caste census plans, demands reservation for SC, ST and OBC women

Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav on Wednesday, 20 September, said that her party has always taken a stand that women belonging to minorities and backward classes should also get reservation under the provision of the women's reservation bill.

Participating in the discussion on the women's reservation bill or The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, Yadav said that the government is now bringing a bill when it has completed 10 years in power and sought to know when the census will be conducted and will the caste related census be conducted or not.

Seeking reservation for women belonging to SC, ST and OBCs and minorities, Yadav urged the Speaker to deter members from taking names of those leaders who are no more members of the House.

Earlier BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had indirectly referred to late Mulayam Singh Yadav without taking his name, while speaking during the discussion on the women's reservation bill in Lok Sabha.

BSP MP Sangeeta Azad expressed whole-hearted support for the bill.

She said that Ambedkar gave respect to women in the constitution.

Azad added that though the BSP supports the bill, it has some demands.

She asked for 50 per cent reservation for women in states and Centre. She also said that OBC reservations should be included along with reservations for women from SC/ST communities.

The BSP MP expressed hope that the women's reservation bill will not merely become an election issue for the government, and that these reservations should be brought in the 2024 elections.

BJD MP Sarmistha Sethi said that the bill has been brought forward only due to the good work of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Naveen Patnaik brought in 33 per cent reservations in Odisha, she said.

Sethi highlighted that the BJD was the first party to field one-third women candidates in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan expressed his party’s support for the women's reservation bill. However, he said that the objective of the government in bringing this bill is not to give reservation to women, but is a panic reaction to the formation of INDIA alliance.

It is a ploy for the 2024 elections, he said.

If the government had the intention, it would have started the caste census in 2021, Lalan said.

"You do not believe in doing justice to the poor and backward classes, that is why you didn’t conduct the census. If you had conducted it, there would have been no need for this bill right now," he said.

The Bihar government gave 50 per cent reservation to women in 2006, the JD(U) MP said.

In 2016, Bihar gave 35 per cent reservation to women in state services, he added.

"Bihar government took a year, not four and half years like this government (NDA) to give reservation to women," Lalan said.