What women politicians have missed out in the big battle ?
Taking the example of Kerala, one could say - the Eves have lost a lot.
Out of 20 sitting MPs only Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is at present a woman legislator from Kerala.
Kerala, paradoxically, has the highest sex ration in the country. The women numbering 1,084 as against 1,000 males.
In Modi-Shah scheme of things; Kerala could have had 30 lawmakers in Lok Sabha and as one-third share of the cake -- at least 10 could have been female.
This is the line BJP leaders need to and want to tell people across India.
Tamil Nadu has 39 MPs now. If the proposed Bill was passed;
the number of MPs would have been 59, and their percentage in the new House of 816 will be 7.23 per cent. In the process Tamil Nadu would have also suffered no loss technically or otherwise both in terms of numbers in total or for women representation.
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| West Bengal : Women Power and Litmus test |
Some believe the new bill would have relieved pressure to grant another OBC quota, given that “social justice” issues have become a red rag for BJP’s social base of upper castes. Here we have two quotes from PM Narendra Modi made on Women's Quota Bill.
** "The need was that 25-30 years ago, when this idea first emerged, we should have implemented it right then. Today, we would have brought it to a considerable level of maturity."
"We must not let this important opportunity slip away. Together, we are going to give the country a new direction. We are going to make a meaningful effort to infuse our governance system with sensitivity.
This will not only shape the nation's politics, but it will also determine the direction and condition of the country."
A reference worth sharing:
The sex ratio is projected to increase from 943 (number of females per 1,000 males) in 2011 to 952 by 2036.
This does indicate a positive trend in gender equality.
The sex ratio was the highest in Kerala (with women numbering 1,084 as against 1,000 males), and lowest in Daman & Diu (618).
However, the political polarisatin has only come to the fore especially on the issue of Delimitation exercise.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leaders, including Sunny Joseph, celebrated the defeat of the 2026 Amendment Bill as a "victory for democracy" against the BJP's attempts to "weaponize gender justice" for political gains.
Some numbers:
In the new century, first there were 45 women MPs (8.29 per cent) in 2004.
It went up to 59 (10.87 per cent) in 2009 and 66 (12.15 per cent) in 2014.
Notably, the numbers went up to 78 in 2019, but dropped to 74 in 2024.
In the first Lok Sabha (1951-52), there were just 24 women MPs in a House of 489 (4.91 per cent).
It went up to 6.28 per cent in 1962, then dipped to 5.58 per cent in 1967, and plunged to 3.51 per cent in 1977.
It shot up over the next two elections to 5.29 per cent (1980) and 7.95 per cent (1984).
In the 1990s, women accounted for 7.3 per cent lawmakers in parliament (1991), 7.37 per cent (1996), 7.92 per cent (1998) and 9.02 per cent (1999).
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*** According to World Bank, by 2036, India's population is expected to rise to 1.522 billion, with women accounting for 48.8 per cent.
The women’s share in India’s population was 48.4 per cent (1960 to 1974),
rose to 48.5 per cent in 2011, but fell to 48.3 till 2018.
Since then, it has gone up to 48.4 per cent.
The sex ratio in the country is the lowest in Daman & Diu (618 females for every 1000 males).
At the national level, the sex ratio is projected to increase from 943 (number of females per 1,000 males) in 2011 to 952 by 2036.
An Inter-Parliamentary Union study found
Bangladesh has 21 per cent women representatives in Parliament.
Japan has a modest 10 per cent.
India --- just 15 per cent women in national legislatures.
Sweden and Norway having the highest share of women in national legislatures (at 46 per cent).
South Africa (45 per cent),
France (38 per cent),
Germany and the UK (35 per cent), and the US (29 per cent).
How have women’s MP contestants’ success rate fared as against those of men in India?
There has been a fall in the success rate for female contestants in parliamentary elections in India.
It has plunged from 49 per cent (success rate for female contestants) in 1957 to
20 per cent in 1980,
and dropping further to seven per cent in 1996, before rising to 10 per cent in 2014.
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But the number of women contestants in various Lok Sabha elections have been growing:
from just 45 in 1957 to
83 in 1971, 330 in 1991,
599 in 1996 and 668 in 2014.
Leaders from Tamil Nadu and Telangana claim that the move would ‘penalise’ them for better governance. But the BJP claims that the ‘pro rata’ approach protects the southern states as there is proportionate increase.
To understand the basics:
Most of the Indian opposition parties are against the linking of women’s reservation to delimitation and Census. Delimitation redraws boundaries of constituencies to ensure each seat represents an equal number of people.
The last such exercise was carried out in 2002, based on the 2001 census.
The 106th Constitutional Amendment in 2023 introduced reservation of one-third of seats for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, based on the first census after the commencement of the Act.
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