Opinion | Elections 2024: Will Parties Walk The Talk On Women's Representation?

It has been more than 76 years since India gained independence, and yet, the 17th Lok Sabha had only 78 women out of 543 MPs. Ironically, at 14.3%, this has been the highest percentage of women in the Lok Sabha since 1947. This figure is much lower for state assemblies, which have only 9% women's representation on average. It is not Women's Day, and this story is not a mere tokenistic essay on 'women in politics'. With the 2024 general elections just weeks away, it is perhaps time to look at a few hard facts that bother women in electoral politics and why major political parties have shied away from fielding enough women candidates thus far, despite there being in place a women's reservation bill seeking reservation of a third of seats in both the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

According to one report, more than 85 lakh first-time female voters will participate in this year's Lok Sabha elections. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre as well as regional governments in states have launched welfare programmes for women to woo them. Free public transport, free electricity, free ration and gas cylinders, jobs, money in bank accounts-the list is endless. Political parties are racing to win over India's 47.1 crore women voters. But when it comes to fielding them as candidates, the record is abysmal. 

According to the figures from the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the 2019 general elections, only 726 out of the 8,054 candidates-that is, just 9% of the total candidates-in the fray were women. Of this, a third had not been fielded by any political party and contested as Independents. In 2014, the number of women candidates was just 668 out of a total of 8,251 candidates.

No wonder India steps into the 2024 elections with a rank of 143 out of 180 in the Inter-Parliamentary Union's global ratings, which analyse women's participation in national parliaments.

International Obligations

Providing a level playing field for women in terms is an objective that finds place not only in India's Constitution but international obligations too. The 73rd constitutional amendments in 1992, which made provisions for women's reservation in local administrative bodies, had a transformative impact at the grassroots level and has led to the elevation of over 1.4 million women to leadership positions so far. There is enough evidence to show that reservation policies have improved women's representation in village panchayats and local administrative bodies. 

India is also party to the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals of January 2016, of which Goal 5 seeks to "achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" and ensure "women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life".

On September 21, 2023, India's Parliament passed the historic and long-pending women's reservation bill, or the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', which mandated the reservation of one-third of legislative seats for women. Its implementation, however, depends on multiple factors, including conducting a Census and delimitation exercises, both of which are complex and unlikely to be done before 2029. The Bill, when it was introduced, was supported unanimously by all parties. But little has changed in terms of the candidates fielded by them.

Politics vs. Other Fields

Another set of data gives a clearer view of the overall female labour force participation in India. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey Report 2023 released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in October 2023, India is the world's fifth-largest economy, with a female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) of 37%.  As lawyers, doctors, media professionals, school teachers, healthcare workers, IT professionals, etc, women are generally doing well. Participation of women in accountancy, tax and finance has also increased phenomenally. In the overall pool, women Chartered Accountants (CAs) now have a 30% share, a massive jump from just 8% in 2000. 

However, in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2023, India ranked 127th, followed by only Pakistan and Afghanistan from South Asia.  

A large part of the worsening gender gap in India has been in terms of political representation in recent years. There has been a considerable drop in the number of women ministers in recent years - from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.

Inhibitions About Politics

Politics still does not figure in most women's career aspirations in India. Many women who get party tickets and win parliamentary seats have family connections or come from other privileged areas, say, the film industry.

Sreeradha Datta, Professor of International Affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University, says, "No proper effort in the sense of a framework has been taken by political parties to engage with women. Moreover, there is no incentive. Bangladesh started with a 50-seat reservation for women. And now, we see a much higher representation. Now, they contest elections shoulder to shoulder with the men."

Giving an example of West Bengal, Datta further says: "At state-level politics, West Bengal has some representation of women, but it barely involves women from the grassroots. Most prominent women leaders come from the  movie or music industry."

It is indeed puzzling why the gender gap between men and women in politics is substantial when the gulf in other fields has been narrowing. Growing literacy among women has not only resulted in greater participation in the workforce but also in more political awareness and confidence to cast votes. Yet, women find it difficult to cope with the demands of electoral politics due to family commitments, fear of humiliation, violence, slander and mudslinging.    

"In every party, muscle power has increased significantly, and that's where women may not be comfortable...Women in their individual capacity avoid participation as politics is becoming complex, less transparent and murkier," says Datta.

States' Performance

Among bigger states, only Odisha has a healthy representation of women. Seven out of 21 of the State's Lok Sabha members - a third of the total - are women. In contrast, in 13 States, less than 10% of the MPs are women. This includes Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Trinamool Congress and the Biju Janata Dal fielded the highest proportion of women candidates in 2019-37% and 33%, respectively. The BJP, the largest political party, had women in only 12.5% of the constituencies it was contesting, while the Congress in 12.8%.

"I belong to Odisha, where empowerment of women has been a priority for long. Former chief minister, the late Biju Patnaik, had first introduced 33% reservation of seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system in the state. Subsequently, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik increased women's representation to 50% in panchayats and urban local bodies. Subsequently, women were given 33% representation in Lok Sabha since the 2019 elections," says Sulochana Das, Mayor, Bhubaneswar Mahanagar Nigam.

In the upcoming general elections, of the 267 candidates announced by the BJP so far in its first and second lists, only 42 are women. For Congress, of its 82 candidates announced so far, only six are women. In TMC, that share is slightly better at 12 out of 42. 

It's well-established now how women representatives contribute to improving development outcomes in rural India. But their work is deeply undervalued and neglected. One can only hope that in the remaining candidates' lists to come, one will find more women candidates.

(Bharti Mishra Nath is a senior journalist)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.