LS has never had even 50 women members

Our major political parties support 33% reservation for women in legislatures, but when it comes to implementing it, they shamelessly back out. Because of their lack of commitment,  women’s representation in Lok Sabha has never touched even the half-century mark.

According to an Election Commission data, the only time the women MPs could come near the 50 mark was in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections when 49 women candidates got elected amounting to a poor 9.02% of the total seats.The number of women MPs fell down to 45 in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The percentage plummeted to 8.29%.

Incidentally, the number of women MPs in Lok Sabha would go up to nearly 160 if the 33% reservation is granted. The women MPs tally has never remained impressive in the Lower House. In the parliamentary history of India, the number of women MPs could touch the 40 mark only on three other occasions. Their number was 42 in the 1984 elections, 40 in 1996 polls and 43 in 1998.

In the post-emergency era when the country was swept by a wave in favour of the Janata Party in 1977 and there were good number of women political leaders both in this party and the Congress, the polls had the dubious distinction of sending the lowest number of women to Lok Sabha. Only 19 women were elected to the House with strength of 542 at that time.

A similar dismal scene prevails on the number of women candidates contesting elections. It was only in 1984 that the number crossed the 100 mark for the first time in three decades after the first Lok Sabha election was held in 1952. Subsequently, there has been an increase in the number of contestants but not the winners. There were 599 women candidates in the fray in 1996. It declined to 355 in 2004 and 326 in 1991. In all other Lok Sabha elections, the figure never crossed 100.