Women in Panchayats far outweigh MPs in Lok Sabha

The fraught issue of 33 per cent reservation for women in higher legislative bodies of India was back in focus this week, with the Opposition defeating a Bill they saw as an attempt to delimit parliamentary constituencies under the garb of advancing women’s quota to the 2029 election cycle.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled an intent to paint the Opposition black for opposing the Bill he said only sought to empower women, the Opposition dared him to reserve seats for women here and now.

With the debate raging and set to last through upcoming poll cycles — Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in 2027 and General Elections in 2029 — it is worthwhile to review the current status of women in Indian politics, and which party stands where on the indicator.

In the current 18th Lok Sabha, Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party has the maximum number of women among its MPs and the ruling BJP has the least.

Out of LJP’s MPs, two out of five (40%) are women. Next in line is the Trinamool Congress, with 37.90 per cent of all MPs being women, followed by Janata Dal (United) with 16.70 per cent women MPs, Congress Party with 14.30%, DMK with 13.60 per cent, SP 13.50 per cent and BJP with 12.90 per cent women MPs.

A deeper analysis of the statistics reveals another interesting data point — the winnability of women candidates fielded in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was the highest for the TMC, even though the BJP had fielded the maximum number of women — 16 per cent — of its candidates among all parties. The national average for women fielded at the hustings was, however, dismal at 9.6 per cent, with only 800 women in the fray out of 8,360 candidates major parties fielded for the last general election.

The Association for Democratic Reforms’ deep dive into the gender matrix of politics further revealed that in 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, 152 (28%) had zero women candidates in 2024. Baramati (Maharashtra), Secunderabad and Warangal (Telangana) had the highest number of women candidates (eight each), followed by Karur (Tamil Nadu) and Kolkata Dakshin (West Bengal) with seven candidates each.

The analysis showed that among national parties, the BJP had the highest share of women candidates at 16 per cent, followed by the Congress and CPM at 13 per cent each, and BSP with 8 per cent.

AAP did not field any women candidates among its 22 candidates. The NPP fielded two women candidates out of a total of three candidates.

Among regional parties, the TMC topped the charts on women in the fray, fielding 28.57 per centwomen in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — 12 out of 42 nominees of the party. All 12 of these women won.

The state of women’s representation in legislative assembly elections has been no better.

Election data analysis shows that out of 43,348 candidates in the current State and UT Assemblies, only 4,295 (10%) candidates were women.

Out of 4,123 constituencies across the country in the current assemblies, 1,698 (41%) constituencies have zero women candidates. Also, among the State and UT Assemblies, none of the states had more than 15 per cent women candidates in the elections.

Delhi, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura had the highest percentage of women candidates contesting in their respective assembly elections.

Compare the presence of women in higher legislative bodies (Lok Sabha and state assemblies) with local bodies and panchayats, where nearly 46.6 per cent of elected representatives today are women.

This heartening trend of a much more favourable grassroots representation of women than higher legislative structures can be attributed to early affirmative action at the level of panchayati raj institutions.

It was as far back as 1992 that the Constitution was amended to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in panchayati raj bodies.

Over the years, many states have taken this reservation cap to 50 per cent, allowing women their due in grassroots governance.

The skew in favour of men in Lok Sabha and state assemblies and the positive outcomes of women’s reservation at the panchayati raj level, make a strong case for an early guarantee of 33 per cent quotas for women in higher bodies too.

But that deeper conversation will begin only after the bitter politics around it ends.