India’s new parliament sees few women

NEW DELHI, India – Only one in 10 lawmakers elected at India’s national poll are female, despite pledges by politicians from all sides during the campaign to empower women, research published on Saturday, May 17, said.

Women candidates won 61 out of 543 seats in the newly-elected national parliament, a small increase on the number in the outgoing one, data from the parliamentary think-tank PRS Legislative Research showed.

Final results show women taking 11.3% of the seats up for grabs, compared with 10.6% at the last national election 5 years ago, the think-tank based in New Delhi said.

Women in India have served as prime minister and president and headed political parties. Sonia Gandhi is the current president of the Congress party, which ruled for 10 years before its rout at the 2014 election.

But politics is mostly dominated by men in the traditionally patriarchal country, and only 633 women stood at the mammoth election out of a total 8,164 candidates, the research showed.

In recent months, Indian politicians have made a concerted effort to woo women, who make up 49% of the electorate, and some promised to pass a long-delayed bill that would reserve a third of seats in national and state assemblies for women.

Prime minister-elect Narendra Modi, whose party won the election in a landslide, was among leaders who stressed the need to empower women, including ensuring their personal safety, after the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in December 2012.

The crime, which shocked the nation, sparked days of protests and debate about widespread abuse of and discrimination against women in India, and led to tougher laws against rapists and other sex offenders.

According to Saturday’s research, the incoming parliament will also continue a trend which has seen older lawmakers win a growing number of seats in a country with an increasingly young electorate.

About 46% of newly elected lawmakers are aged over 55, setting a new record, while the number of elected MPs aged under 40 dropped from 79 in 2009 to 71, the lowest in India’s history. – Rappler.com