The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The President of India, in their role as head of the legislature, has full powers to summon and prorogue either house of Parliament or to dissolve the Lok Sabha, but they can exercise these powers only upon the advice of the Prime Minister and their Union Council of Ministers.
Manual scavenging is a term used mainly in India for "manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or sewer or in a septic tank or a pit". Manual scavengers usually use hand tools such as buckets, brooms and shovels. The workers have to move the excreta, using brooms and tin plates, into baskets, which they carry to disposal locations sometimes several kilometers away. The practice of employing human labour for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks is also prevalent in Bangladesh and Pakistan. These sanitation workers, called "manual scavengers", rarely have any personal protective equipment. The work is regarded as a dehumanizing practice.
Bindeshwar Pathak was an Indian sociologist and social entrepreneur. He was the founder of Sulabh International, an India-based social service organisation promoting human rights, environmental sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education. He was the Brand Ambassador for Swachh Rail Mission of Indian Railways, a complement to the broader Swachh Bharat Mission. His work is considered pioneering in social reform, especially in the field of sanitation and hygiene. He received various national and international awards for his work with this organisation. He was presented with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management for the year 2017. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, posthumously in 2024 and the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in 1991.
Poonam Mahajan is an Indian politician and a former Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Mumbai North Central, Constituency, Maharashtra. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has served as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, from December 2016 to September 2020. Mahajan was the President of the Basketball Federation of India, the first female to hold this position. In addition, she currently serves as Chair of the Maharashtra State Animal Welfare Board.
The Women's Reservation Bill or The Constitution Bill, 9 March 2010, is a bill passed in the Parliament of India which says to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 1/3 of all seats in the lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women. The seats were proposed to be reserved in rotation and would have been determined by draw of lots in such a way that a seat would be reserved only once in three consecutive general elections.
Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of India which provides a mechanism to investigate alleged corruption and misuse of power by public servants and also protect anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing in government bodies, projects and offices. The wrongdoing might be in the form of fraud, corruption or mismanagement. The Act will also ensure punishment for false or frivolous complaints.
Bezwada Wilson is an Indian activist and one of the founders and National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), an Indian human rights organization that has been campaigning for the eradication of manual scavenging, the construction, operation and employment of manual scavengers which has been illegal in India since 1993. His work at SKA, a community-driven movement, has been recognized by the Ashoka Foundation which has nominated him a Senior Fellow. On 27 July 2016, he was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award. He is an Ambedkarite.
The Essential Commodities Act (ECA) is an act of the Parliament of India that was established to ensure the delivery of certain commodities or products, the supply of which, if obstructed due to hoarding or black marketing, would affect the normal life of the people. This includes foodstuff, drugs, fuel etc. This act was modified by the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 as part of the 2020 Indian farm reforms.
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution Act, 1955, empowered the President to prescribe a time limit for a State Legislature to convey its views on proposed Central laws relating to the formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States. The amendment also permitted the President to extend the prescribed limit, and prohibited any such bill from being introduced in Parliament until after the expiry of the prescribed or extended period. The 5th Amendment re-enacted the provision to Article 3 of the Constitution.
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2015 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 90 obsolete Acts, and also amended the provisions of the Railways (Amendment) Act, 2008 and the Indian Maritime University Act, 2008 to correct typographical errors. The Act was the second such repealing act tabled by the Narendra Modi administration aimed at repealing obsolete laws.
The Repealing and Amending Act, 2016 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 295 Acts, and also made minor amendments to the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Work Place Act, 2013, and the Governors Amendment Act, 2014. The Act was the third such repealing act tabled by the Narendra Modi administration aimed at repealing obsolete laws.
The Repealing and Amending Act, 2017 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 104 Acts, and also partially repealed three sections of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2007, and made minor amendments to three other Acts to correct typographical errors. The Act was the fourth such repealing act tabled by the Narendra Modi administration aimed at repealing obsolete laws.
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2017 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 131 Acts, and also repealed nine Ordinances promulgated by the Governor-General of India before independence. It also made minor amendments to The Plantations Labour Act, 1951, The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Act was the fifth such repealing act tabled by the Narendra Modi administration aimed at repealing obsolete laws.
The Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016 is an Act of the Parliament of India intended to enforce the Hague Hijacking Convention and the 2010 Beijing Protocol Supplementary to the Convention. The Act repeals and replaces The Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982. The new Act broadens the definition of hijacking to include any attempt to seize or gain control of an aircraft using "any technological means", which accounts for the possibility that the hijackers may not be physically present on board the aircraft.
The Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Act, 2016 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 758 Appropriation Acts that were now obsolete. An Appropriation Act is an Act that authorizes the Government of India to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet expenses for a fiscal year. The Act was among a series repealing acts tabled by the Narendra Modi administration aimed at repealing obsolete laws.
The Forty-third Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as the Constitution Act, 1977, repealed six articles that had been inserted into the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment which had been enacted by the Indira Gandhi-led Indian National Congress during the Emergency. The 43rd Amendment was enacted by the newly elected Janata Party which had won the 1977 general elections campaigning on a promise to "restore the Constitution to the condition it was in before the Emergency".
The Repealing and Amending Act, 2019 is an Act of the Parliament of India that repealed 58 Acts. It also made minor amendments to the Income Tax Act, 1961 and The Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017. The Act was the sixth such repealing act aimed at repealing obsolete laws tabled by the Narendra Modi administration, and the first tabled during its second term. The government had repealed 1,428 Acts during its first term between 2014 and 2019.
The Code on Wages, 2019, also known as the Wage Code, is an Act of the Parliament of India that consolidates the provisions of four labour laws concerning wage and bonus payments and makes universal the provisions for minimum wages and timely payment of wages for all workers in India. The Code repeals and replaces the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
The Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as the Constitution Act, 1978, was enacted by the Janata Party which had won the 1977 general elections campaigning on a promise to "restore the Constitution to the condition it was in before the Emergency". The Amendment aimed to undo several changes that had been made to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment which had been enacted by the Indira Gandhi-led Indian National Congress during the Emergency.
The Indian agriculture acts of 2020, often termed the Farm Bills, were three acts initiated by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The Lok Sabha approved the bills on 17 September 2020 and the Rajya Sabha on 20 September 2020. The then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, gave his assent on 27 September 2020.
