Need for more representation of women

  • Women legislators in India raise economic performance in their constituencies by about 1.8 percentage points per year more than male legislators.
  • When average growth is 7%, this implies that the growth premium associated with female legislators is about 25%.
  • Lower Criminalization of Politics:Male legislators are about three times as likely as female legislators to have criminal charges pending against them when they stand for election. This explains the growth difference mentioned above.
  • Policy Making– Better representation of women’s and children’s concerns in policymaking. Eg: Panchayat Raj institutions serve as a good example in this front.
  • Lower Corruption: The rate at which women accumulate assets while in office is 10 percentage points lower, per year than among men. These findings line up with experimental evidence that women are more just, risk-averse and less likely to engage in criminal and other risky behaviour than men.
  • Economic growth: It was found that male and female politicians are equally likely to negotiate federal projects for road building in their constituencies. However, women are more likely to oversee completionof these projects.
    • Eg: The share of incomplete road projects is 22 percentage points lower in female-led constituencies.
  • From a feminist viewpoint politics needs to follow a road that moves women out of the traditional social and political marginalization.
  • Despite so many favorable points for women, women make up 14% of the Lok Sabha and 11% of the Rajya Sabha.