New Delhi: Despite all political parties vying with one another to proclaim themselves as votaries of women empowerment, they have not ensured a respectable presence of women in successive Lok Sabhas.
Women constitute about 47 per cent of the total number of electorate, but their representation in the supreme legislature of the country had been much lower proportionally.
According to the latest Election Commission data, there were only 6.89 per cent women candidates in 2009 Lok Sabha elections and this year their figure has shown only a marginal increase to 7.83 per cent.
This low number of contestants has mainly been responsible for their poor presence in the successive Lok Sabhas.
Their representation in the Lower House has been between 19 to 59.
The outgoing House has the highest number of women members at 59 representing 10.86 per cent of the total number of seats in the Lower House.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, only 45 women could reach the House as against 49 women who were elected to the House in 1999 elections.
The second general election saw only 22 women being elected to the Lok Sabha. The number rose to 31 in 1962, and to 29 in 1967, but it plunged again to 21 in 1971. It happened surprisingly when the country voted overwhelmingly for a woman prime minister — Indira Gandhi to run the country.
The Janata wave in 1977 elections also could not benefit women, as their number went down to the lowest 19 in recent history.
The number of women MPs was 28 in Seventh Lok Sabha, and 43, 29, 38, 40, 43 in successive Lok Sabhas till 1998.
The poor representation of women in the Lok Sabha stands in contrast to the high political posts women have occupied in this country, including holding the top post of President.
At present the country has two women chief ministers, a woman as leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a woman as president of the country’s oldest party the Congress.
The proposal for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislature has found large support among the political parties with the ruling Congress and the main Opposition party BJP including it in their manifesto for the 2014 elections.
However, a few parties like the Samajwadi party and the RJD have opposed the proposal and some like the Bahujan Samaj Party have opposed the proposed Bill in the present form, though not rejecting the idea of 33 per cent reservation.
The Bill has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha, but could not be brought in in the Lower House for lack of consensus.
Though the SP and the RJD reject the 33 per cent reservation at the conceptual level, they, however, like the BSP, say would support the Bill if it was changed to accommodate the quota for backwards and minorities.
Otherwise, they would want the proposed 33 per cent quota for women to be reduced by about a half.
Mayawati, who prides on being a dalit woman Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, says that she was all for women reservation, but if the present Bill was passed it would not do justice to dalit women and women from other weaker sections of the society. (UNI)