Reduced Count & Participation of Women in Indian Politics Recent speech by Hon. President of India reemphasized endorsing 33% Reservation for women in lower house of Parliament & State legislative assemblies. However a glance at past 2 decades shows a considerable Down-slide in women participation in Politics. Women Population constitutes 62 crs of India’s total Population which is 125 crs . In-spite of being 49% of the total population, women presence in politics is seen very minimal. Political Parties are speaking about 33% women reservation but with the current & past facts & figures, do we really see if these figures can grow to show any increment result? Survey conducted by Inter-Parliament Union Organization to find out Women presence in parliaments across the world brought out some details: 1. Survey was conducted in 188 Countries 2. India stands at # 108 amongst 188 countries ( 11% in lok-sabha & 10.5% in State Assemblies) 3. Nepal stands at # 24 , China at # 55 & Pakistan at # 66 India is far far behind in the race when compared to our neighbouring countries. **Worldwide women participation is 22%, we are still crawling at 11% ** ========================================================== Lets see the figures of our recent 16th Lok Sabha Elections & some earlier years : In 2014 , Out of 5432 Candidates , Only 402 women candidates contested ( ie 7%) . In 2009 , 550 women contested & In 1991 , 600 women contested. Although 402 women contested in 2014, appx 130 women contested Independently, which means only 272 women candidates were backed by Political Parties resulting in only 5% women representation. 2014 : The house has 61 women amongst total of 543 representatives . It means 11% representation 2009 : The house had 59 women amongst total of 543 representatives . It means 10% representation Premafacie Inference is that, in a span of 5 years, only 2 women candidates were able to add to women strength, taking it from 59 to 61 . ========================================================= Regional Parties led by Women leadership were also not seen very generous in promoting women in parliament: *BSP (UP) offered 16 seats to women candidate to contest out of 501 seats *AIADMK (Tamil Nadu) offered 4 seats to women candidates to contest out of 40 *T. Congress (West Bengal) offered 12 seats to women candidates to contest out of 42 **MAHARASHTRA: all parties put together ================================= 2014 : 58 seats were offered to women candidates out of 897 ( 5 won ) Winning Candidates: Poonam Mahajan, Supriya Sule, Hina Gavit, Raksha Khadse & Bhavna Gawle 2009 : 55 seats were offered & 3 won (Priya Dutt, Supriya Sule & Bhavna Gawle) Net Net in 2014 within Maharashtra, women participation was just 6.46% & winning % was just .55%. ========================================================= Some Facts & figures to know about women & men representative is Lok Sabha. Post-Graduates: Women - 32% & Men - 30 % Avg Age : Women - 47 yrs & Men - 55 yrs 70yrs & Abv : Women - None & Men - 35 Graduates : Women - 53% & Men - 48 % ========================================================== The question remains here is, will the the Women Reservation bill which was tabled in Rajya Sabha on 9th March 2010 will ever move ahead for a concensus in Lok-Sabha looking at the current scenario of seats allocation being given by political parties ? Base Line : We need to think strongly to this effect, the role of women in elections & her role in active politics for the development of our country & its regional states in the right perspective of equality or at-least 33%.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 12:31:55 +0000
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