Where are the women in Indian politics?

Reservation of 1/3^rd seats for women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions has demonstrated impact and pushed women to the forefront of local governance. Research shows that women-led councils implemented 62% more drinking water projects, an issue considered more important by the female electorate than their male counterparts. Similarly at the national level, female Parliamentarians utilised 36.9% of the funds allocated to them through the MPLAD in 2014-15 as compared to 34.3% utilisation by male MPs. Undoubtedly, female leadership has a positive influence.

However, in the 69 years since the Independence, beyond the performance of women in the locally reserved seats, Indian governance systems have not been able to take full advantage of the benefits of female leadership. For example if we look at the Parliament, where reservations don’t exist, the number of female representatives has seen a meagre increase. The issue around women’s leadership is deep rooted in recruitment and training.

The Congress and BJP reserve 33% of seats in the party’s various committees for women and the Aam Aadmi Party reserves 25%. However committee seats far from meet these expectations as is evident from the numbers. For example, only five of the 42 members of the Congress Workers' Committee and just six of the 57 AICC members are women. Aam Aadmi Party has only 2 women amongst 24 members in its highest executive body.

Out of five of the leading national parties, including Trinamool Congress (which is led by a woman) and CPI(M), women are conspicuously missing from decision-making roles, with most women representation being constrained at around 10%, with the exception of BJP. The committee representation speaks of the recruitment and internal party structures where women are significantly under-represented. This permeates through the Parliament where representation continues to be low with women constituting only 7.8% of the total number of candidates running. It suggests that from the very initial phases, women are deprived of being a part of the political process.

On an average, the small number of women who did succeed in making their way to the Parliament have lagged behind in certain leadership performance indicators. The voice of women MPs in the formulation of national policies remains isolated and fragmented at best. In the 15^th Lok Sabha, women MPs participated in only 9% of the debates, lower than even their strength in the Parliament. Similarly, the average number of questions asked is lower than the overall number and nearly 1/10 of the women members have never even participated in a debate or raised a single question in the entire 15^th Lok Sabha. In conversation with female Parliamentarians, it becomes evident that there is lack of a support system which can guide and mentor female leaders to become vocal and impactful. Thus highlighting the deficit in training.

While there a need to make roads to Parliament for women, it is equally necessary to support them within the Parliament to deliver on their promises and equip them with the necessary skills and strategies. As such we must strive for greater political integration of women— quantitatively as well as, qualitatively.

The writer is an associate at Swaniti Initiative where she is currently leading the Indian Women’s Parliamentarians Forum.