Leading Non Resident Indian Member of Parliament Keith Vaz has introduced a bill in the House of Commons seeking a more ethnically balanced Parliament in the United Kingdom.
The bill will allow parties to create ethnic-minority shortlists when selecting parliamentary candidates.
There are currently only 13 Labour and two Conservative Members of Parliament of an ethnic minority background. No Liberal Democrat belongs to that category.
If the number of MPs reflected the percentage of ethnic minorities in the UK, there would be 58 ethnic minority legislators.
"This bill will bring a significant change now, it will address a serious deficit in our democracy and allow us to begin moving towards a Parliament that is more reflective of our society", Vaz said in a statement.
"We need to tackle the problem of inequality in a number of ways, but this is the only change that will make a real difference now", he said.
Vaz, an MP from Leicester East, said, "We cannot afford to wait the 75 years it would take at the present rate for the number of ethnic minority members to reflect the UK population. We need to start discussing the needs of all citizens and we need to start now."
