Present situation of women’s political representation in India

  • India ranks 153 out of 190 nationsin the percentage of women in the lower house of world parliaments.
  • The Economic Survey 2018 said there are developing countries like Rwandawhich has more than 60 per cent women representatives in Parliament in 2017.
  • In India, between 2010 and 2017 women’s share rose 1 percentage pointin its Lower House (Lok Sabha).
  • As on October 2016, out of the total 4,118 MLAsacross the country, only 9 per cent were women.
  • The highest percentage of women legislators come from Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan (14%), followed by Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (13%) and Punjab (12%).
  • The factors such as domestic responsibilities, prevailing cultural attitudes regarding roles of women in society and lack of support from familywere among main reasons that prevented them from entering politics.
  • Lack of confidence and finance were the other major deterring factors that prevented women from entering politics.
  • Ahead of any election campaign in the country, sexist and derogatory remarksstart doing the rounds against women contestants, in some cases forcing them to withdraw their nomination.
  • The introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill in 1996that would reserve 33 percent of seats in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for women on a rotational basis, lapsed in 2014 with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
  • The constitution allocates total seats to states by population, the resultant women’s representation at 12% is far below the actual population of women. So, on grounds of fairness, this is an anomaly.