Women in politics: A long way to go

Women constitute almost half of the world population. Globally, they constitute 49.6 per cent of the total population as against 50.6 per cent of men. Around 100 countries have the system of allocating seats/berths in the political system to ensure adequate representation of women in leadership roles. As per Census 2011, India’s population constituted 48.5 per cent of women and 51.5 per cent of men.

In India, historically women are not given primacy in the decision-making process; they face institutional, systemic exclusion in the decision-making process. Political under-representation is one of the important factors for the poor developmental outcomes of women.

Set in this context, here an effort has been made to analyse the extent of political inclusiveness of women in governance with reference to the political representation in the three tiers of governance. As per the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) report “Women in Politics, 2021”, women constitute 25.5 per cent of Parliament seats across the world. In comparison to Asia (20.4) and the World (25.5), the South Asian region lags behind in representation for women in Parliament with 15 per cent.

In India, the average percentage of women in Parliament (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) is 12.8 which is less than that of the South Asia region, Asia and the World. India stands at 148th position out of 188 countries with 12.8 per cent women represented in Parliament. South Sudan (20.25), Pakistan (19.7) and Bangladesh (20.9) have better representation of women in parliament than in India.

The interesting point about the women’s election to Parliament in India is the gradual increase in the percentage of women getting elected. Also, the data pertaining to the female voter turnout in the general elections shows an increasing trend especially from the 10th Lok Sabha onwards. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, the percentage of women elected was 14.4 with 78 getting elected. Out of this 78, 45 were elected to Parliament for the first time. As on January 2021, the number of women in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) was 27 constituting 11.2 per cent of the total members of 241.

In terms of the percentage of women in the ministerial positions, India ranks at 160th position among the 182 countries. In 2019, India had just six women ministers at the Centre with three of them in the Union Cabinet. Since 1952, the number of women contesting the elections to the Lok Sabha is gradually increasing. However, the same is not reflected in the percentage of winning candidates. The representation of women in the state Assemblies is lesser than the Parliament with 11.23 per cent of the women being members of the legislative Assemblies in the states. Available data shows that only 5 per cent of women are members of the legislative councils.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in 1992-93 has expanded the federal polity and space for the participation of women in the local decision-making process. In 2018, women occupied 44.37 per cent of the positions in the three-tier panchayats. In contrast to the meagre representation of women in Parliament and Assembly seats, the profile of women elected members in local governments gives a ray of hope.

The one-third reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities has transformed the gender composition of local governance. A Government of India Committee (2013) saw this as a powerful human resource of the young leadership of women to drive inclusive rural governance and outreach and access to development programmes with the desired focus on gender and social justice.

Democratic governance

Political representation is only the first step in ensuring genuine participation in democratic governance and equality. However, there is no direct correlation between representation and participation in the conduct of administration and development. Representation gives an opportunity to raise the voices for different sections of the society. This is more important to a socially diverse country like India where the political institutions are elitist in nature and tend to exclude the voices of minority communities.

The biggest Constitutional omission is not making provisions for the women’s reservation in the Legislative Assembly and Parliament. Political empowerment of women is an instrument to bring social justice by making them partners in the decision-making process and development.

Better governance outcomes: The question to be asked is how far the women elected representatives have exercised their authority and power in political offices in an effective way. Women MPs (78 per cent) slightly lag behind the male MPs (85 per cent) in terms of attendance. Chanda Jain (2015) finds that female parliamentarians utilised 36.9 per cent of the funds allocated to them through the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme in 2014-15 as compared to 34.3 per cent utilisation by male MPs.

Various studies have highlighted that the level of socio-economic development in the women-led panchayats is relatively better than the ones governed by their male counterparts. In a significant finding, a United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research study (2018) found that women legislators can increase the economic growth in the constituencies by 1.8 percentage points per year than the male legislators.

The foregoing analysis and evidence show the urgent need for the immediate enactment of reservation of seats for women in the legislative organs which can go a long way in improving the gendered governance. An increase in the participation of women in politics affects positively in terms of prioritising girls and women’s issues in policy-making and implementation.

India has to learn from countries such as Rwanda, Bolivia and Cuba in which more than half of parliamentarians are women. All the national and regional parties should pass resolutions for ensuring 50 per cent of the seats reserved for women candidates in Parliament and in the state Assembly. The more we delay, the more time we take to achieve equitable development outcomes. Let the world know the capacities of women’s leadership, especially the women from SC/ST and OBCs to flourish in the state Assemblies and national parliaments.

(The writer is PhD Fellow, Centre for Political Institutions, Governance and Development of Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru)