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Women: The Less Represented in Indian Politics

By David Lal & Abhiruchi Ojha

09 June, 2014
Countercurrents.org

As the elections for 16 th Lok Sabha has concluded with a voter's turnout of 66 percent, highest recorded after 1984 across the country by men and women electorate. With the increased voting percentage of women there were expectations running parallel for an increased women's representation in the Lok Sabha. In the 15th Lok Sabha, there were only 10.9 percent women representatives which are now increased to 11.2 percent with an addition of two more women MPs. Some significant findings of women's participation in elections, first, despite a marginal increase their overall percentage is far below in proportion to their population; second, women who comprise half of total electorate are not visible in the politics at the highest level; third, women's voting percentage in the Lok Sabha elections has witnessed an increase and it is almost equal to men; still, women are few as candidates in elections and at fringes as representatives. No doubt, the number has increased to the record highest since independence yet far from the critical mass. It once again highlights women continues to remain as ‘electors' and not as ‘decision makers' in Indian politics. According to the Global Gender Gap of 2013, in the index on ‘Women in Parliament' India is currently placed at 106 th compared to 100 th in 2009. Neither of them is encouraging for the political egalitarianism in India.

From 1962 to 2014 general elections saw the domination of men in total electorate compared to women. Men electorate have increased from 6.7 crore in 1962 to 43.6 crore in 2014 and have been constantly between 52 to 52.7 percent of total electorate across the country. On the other hand, women electorate also increased from 6 crore in 1962 to 39.6 crore in 2014. Despite better women electorate, traditionally the participation of women in the voting was less compared to men due to different socio-cultural factors under lined by gender. In the recent elections, women have increased their voting percentage. From the first general elections there is a steady increase in the voting percentage of women. In 1957 general elections, women's voting percentage was 39 percentage compared to 56 percentage of men. In the last six out of fourteen general elections, women's voting percentage has crossed 55 percent which highlights their potential participation in the voting arena. In 1967, 1977, 1989, 1998, 1999 and 2009 elections witnessed an increase in the women's voting percentage. The 2014 elections have witnessed the record increase in the voting percentage of women compared to men. Women's voting percentage has increased from 55.8 to 65.7 percent in the last two elections; there is an increase of almost 10 percent. Increased women's voting percentage over different elections does indicate the growing enthusiasm and belief of women in the elections.

Greater participation of women in voting does not suggest improvement in the women candidature and representatives in Lok Sabha. How much women choose to enter into active politics could be reflected from their candidature in electoral arena. Contestants in the Lok Sabha elections after filing the nomination suggests, in the last 60 years, ‘women candidature' has been highly insignificant both in numbers and percentage. The percentage of women candidates never went beyond 7 percent of the total candidates which was witnessed in the last Lok Sabha election. From 1957 to 1996 general elections, the total women candidates were only 3 to 4 percent. On the contrary, the average total men candidate to all Lok Sabha is above 95 percent and for women it is under 5 percent. In the 1998 general elections, for the first time, the percentage of women candidates' reached beyond 5 percent of total candidates. The last five general elections witnessed a steady increase in the women candidates from 4.2 percent in 1996 to 7.8 percent in 2014.

Meanwhile, 2014 elections, have witnessed the highest number of women candidates but the difference in the candidature still continue to be high. One major finding is there was more number of men candidates in 2014 elections alone than the total number of women candidates to Lok Sabha from 1957 to 2014. There were 7590 men candidates in the 2014 which is nearly double of total women candidates put together in all general elections.

Although women have high electorate, increased voting, improved candidature the gender ‘representation gap' remains substantial. The data on the representation of women highlight greater ‘inequality in representation' than in electorate and voters. The representation of women has increased from 4 percent in 1957 to 5.5 percent in 1971. The post-emergency election of 1977 saw the lowest share of women in Lok Sabha. In 1984, for the first time women's representation have crossed 8 percent when 42 women MPs were elected to the lower house. Coalition era in the 1990's saw a consistent but marginal growth in the number of women in Lok Sabha and the percentage remained between 7.1 to 7.9 percent. In 1999 elections, the state parties for the first time distributed highest number of tickets to the women candidates. The 2004 elections again saw a slight decline in the number of women in the parliament with 8.2 percent. However, 2009 elections brought the number to the highest with 59 representatives out of 556 candidates. The current Lok Sabha undoubtedly has observed the highest share of women in Lok Sabha. Total women members have increased to 61, two more than previous. There is a ‘negligible' 0.4 percent growth rate of women representative. While we celebrate the highest number of women representatives, it is equally significant to analyse their overall presence in the Lok Sabha. The total share of women in the 16 th Lok Sabha is 11.2 percent compared to 89 percent men. Out of total 7828 representatives to Lok Sabha, men comprise 93 percent of them and women 7 percent. If this trend continue to remain it would take another 50 years to achieve the critical mass of 33 percent forget about equal share. These insignificant numbers of women seek for remedial measures to ensure an increase in women's representation. Political parties are the agency for political mobilisation and recruitment, also allotting tickets and supporting them to win. It has to create a larger role to enhance the substantive gender representation in politics.

David Lal is Doctoral Fellow, Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.E-mail [email protected]

Abhiruchi Ojha is Doctoral fellow at Centre for African Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. E-mail id. [email protected]




 

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