Women in Politics: More or Less?

By: Damini Mehta

Although the representation of women MPs has jumped threefold since the first Lok Sabha in 1952 when 5% of the elected MPs were females, the numbers are still abysmally low for any meaningful representation of females in the country’s highest deliberative and legislative bodies. 

Of the 8,039 candidates that contested elections in the 2019 Lok Sabha (LS) election barely 9% or 720 were women. 78 women went on to become Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 17th Lok Sabha after the 2019 election, a little more than 14% of the strength of the lower house. The 15th Lok Sabha elected in 2014 saw the number of female LS MPs go above 10% for the first time in the country’s history as 58 MPs were directly elected to the Lower House of the parliament. 

Status of women representation in state assemblies is no different. According to Election Commission of India data, prior to the December 2023 assembly polls, of the 4,353 MLAs across the country, just 359 or 8% were women. Representation of women MLAs in state assemblies is apparently capped at 20% with hardly one or two states having more than 20% female MLAs. In the recently elected Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana Assemblies, 21%, 12% and 10% female MLAs respectively were elected. Rajasthan, which also went to polls along with the three states in December 2023, saw the women MLAs come down from 24 in 2018 to 20 this time. 

Although the representation of women MPs has jumped threefold since the first Lok Sabha in 1952 when 5% of the elected MPs were females, the numbers are still abysmally low for any meaningful representation of females in the country’s highest deliberative and legislative bodies. 

Poll Appeasement of Women

Women candidates and legislators get limited space in India’s electoral framework, election campaigning and poll promises in the last few years have centered around issues close to the women. Most recently, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Supremo Arvind Kejriwal announced a scheme to give a monthly allowance of Rs 1000 to women voters in Delhi. The scheme excludes government employees, taxpayers and beneficiaries of any government pension plan but is slated to cover around 45-50 lakh of Delhi’s 67 lakh women voters, a move considered by many as a poll promise before the Lok Sabha. 

Political parties across the board are offering sops to appease women voters ranging from cash transfers to subsidies on gas cylinders and even bicycles and laptops for meritorious school students. Congress is not much behind on appeasing women voters. Prior to the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, the party manifesto promised an annual financial assistance of Rs 15,000 to women as part of its ten guarantees in late 2022. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced the launch of the scheme in the state budget 2024-25. This comes close on the heels of the impending Lok Sabha elections and with Himachal as the only North Indian Hindi speaking state still in the Congress’ kitty.

In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election, AICC General Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the party’s ‘Ladki hun, Lad Sakti hun’ campaign giving 40% MLA tickets to women candidates across the state. The party faced a massive defeat winning just two seats in the 403 seat state assembly. Although candidate choice emerged as a major reason for the party’s loss, including giving tickets to lesser known female candidates just to fill the 40% quota, the Ladki hun campaign cannot be blamed for the party’s humiliating defeat. Congress was already down to just seven MLAs in the outgoing assembly as it witnessed several top leaders abandoning the party in the run up to the assembly polls

BJP’s Core Cohort: Women's Vote 

The BJP, in what is seen as a masterstroke, passed the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill in September 2023 introducing 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Although the Act will come into force only after the next Census is conducted, the move is clearly an outreach to women voters across the country prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha. The party has also highlighted women as one of the four ‘castes’ it will focus on in the next few years - poor, youth, farmers and women. The reference to these cohorts as castes is an effort by the saffron party to undermine the opposition’s demands for a caste census, and by extension an attempt to reach out to women voters, a voter group that runs across castes, classes and religions.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP promised to build concrete homes for all Ladli Behna beneficiaries. Former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was known to ride high on his Ladli Behana Yojana which offered a monthly stipend of Rs 1,250 for every adult woman. The scheme was a game changer in consolidating women voters for the party sitting at more than 1.3 crore. Apart from this, the BJP promised free education to girls belonging to below poverty line families and LPG gas cylinders at Rs 450. 

Countering the BJP’s outreach to women, Congress also promised a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500 and LPG gas cylinders for Rs 500 to women. 

Women Voters Take Over Male Counterparts?

A report by State Bank of India’s Economic Research Department predicts that in India, women voters will surpass male voters by 2029. In the 2014 LS election, 55 crore voters exercised their franchise of which 26 crore were women. In 2019, the voter turnout further increased to 62 crore, of which 30 crore were women. By 2024, the report predicts a voter turnout of 68 crore, of which 33 crore are expected to be women. By 2029, women voters at 37 crore will outstrip men voters at 36 crore. 

Based on the 1992 Constitutional Amendment Act, Panchayats and Municipalities across the country compulsorily have 33% of women members. Interestingly, more than 20 states have a mandate to elect 50% of women members in the third tier of  governance. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway, and South Africa have upwards of 45% women legislatures in their national  assemblies. Within the limited scope of female MPs and of the parties with more than 10 seats in Lok Sabha, 42% of Biju Janata Dal MPs and 39% of Trinamool Congress MPs are women, whereas in Rajya Sabha, 17% of Congress MPs are women. Clearly, the parties need to walk the talk when it comes to giving adequate representation to women, in the legislatures, ministries and within the parties organizations too.  

The 128th Constitutional Amendment Act 2023, dubbed Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, will tip the scales further in favor of women by mandating at least one thirds of legislatures across the Parliament and State Assemblies be females. Representation of women plays a role not just in the form of numbers. Greater women legislatures essentially means that the laws and rules framed by the Parliament and the state legislatures will be more in lines with women’s needs and demands.