Political Participation of Women in World’s Largest Democracy

Karishmita Saikia

India, the largest democracy in the world is gradually witnessing a large number of women in the political arena.

It is an important metric to evaluate progress in bridging gender inequalities in the country.

It is heartening to note that Indian women were among the earliest to get their political rights (right to vote) without any political movement like in the United States and many Western countries. They were among the foremost to take active part in politics even in pre-independence times.

At present, as per 73rd and 74th amendment acts, all local elected bodies reserve 1/3rd of their seats for women.

To increase the participation of women in the Parliament, the Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced in the upper and lower house, but is still pending in Lok Sabha, despite its reintroduction.

The main aim of this bill is to reserve 33 percent seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women.

The bill, which seeks to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, was first introduced in 1996. Thereafter, it was introduced several times. The bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010, but it lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.

Many women leaders and political organizations have been staging protests all over the country pressing for the bill to be passed.

Though the number of female politicians is less as compared to male politicians but they seem to be standing at more dominant and powerful positions today. The very first name that comes to our mind is that of PratibhaDevisinghPatil, who was the first woman to serve as the President of India. Her tenure started in July 2007 and ended in July 2012.

DroupadiMurmu who is the present President of India is the second women in the history of India to hold the post. She is also the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country. On July 25, 2022, DroupadiMurmu took oath as the 15^th President of India.

On the other hand, names such as Mamata Banerjee, J. Jayalalitha, Uma Bharti, VasundharaRajeScindhia, SushmaSwaraj, Rabdi Devi, Mayawati, AmbikaSoni, and last but not the least the two young MP’s Agatha Sangma and SupriyaSule are the well known politicians.

Sheila Dikshit has been elected the chief minister of Delhi for the third time, and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi following the footsteps of her mother in law is heading the Congress party.

However, talking about Northeast India, the region has traditionally seen low representation of women in politics due to various social, cultural, and economic factors.

In the recently concluded assembly elections in the three northeastern states, just three women won in Meghalaya and two in Nagaland. It is worth mentioning that Nagaland scripted history on March 2 by electing two women MLAs for the first time ever since the state attained statehood 60 years ago.

The need of the hour is to make politics more gender-inclusive in order to increase women’s participation in grassroots governance and legislatures.

The women In power are making waves everywhere with their contributions to the development of the country which can never be overlooked.

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