The first state in India to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj institutions was:

Bihar became the first state in India to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj institutions, through the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006.

Constitutional minimum:

• Article 243D, added by the 73rd Amendment, requires that not less than one-third of the total seats in panchayats, and not less than one-third of the offices of chairpersons, be reserved for women.
• States are free to provide more than this minimum.

Bihar's decision:

• In 2006, the Bihar government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar raised the reservation for women in panchayats to 50 per cent.
• This led to a large increase in the number of women representatives in the state's panchayats.

Other states that followed:

• Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and many others later provided 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats.
• More than 20 states now have such reservation.

Central proposal:

The 110th Constitution Amendment Bill (2009) sought to raise women's reservation in panchayats to 50 per cent across the country, but it lapsed.

Women's reservation in legislatures:

The 106th Constitution Amendment Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) provides for one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, to be implemented after the next census and delimitation.

Impact of reservation:

• It has brought lakhs of women into local politics.
• Studies have found that women leaders often give more importance to issues such as drinking water, sanitation and health.

Challenges:

• In some places, male relatives exercise power on behalf of elected women, which is known as "proxy" representation.
• Training and capacity-building programmes have been started to address this.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also provide 50 per cent reservation for women, but they did so after Bihar.