The 17th Lok Sabha will go down in history for voting in the women’s reservation law, which guarantees 33 percent reservation for women in the Lower House as well as state assemblies.
The outgoing Lok Sabha also has the highest number of women members so far, but this is a more dynamic record that is broken almost every time a new Parliament is sworn in, as more women take the electoral leap and make a mark among voters.
While there are 75 women MPs in the current Lok Sabha (14% of the total strength of 543), the number was 68 in 2014, and 64 in 2009.
In comparison, the first Lok Sabha (total strength 499 MPs), which took oath in 1952, had 22 women (4.4%).
When the reservation law kicks in, India will have around 180 women MPs.
State By State
In the current Lok Sabha, smaller states as well as Union territories, which account for fewer MPs, account for a better representation of women. The lone MPs for Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu as well as Chandigarh are both women. There’s one woman MP each for Meghalaya and Tripura, which overall have 2 Lok Sabha members. Meanwhile, the number is 1 out of 7 for national capital Delhi (14%).
Among the bigger states, Odisha has the highest share of women MPs, at 7 out of 21 (33 percent).
In the states that send the highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, the share is much lower: Only 11 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 MPs are women (14%), while the number is 3 out of 39 for Tamil Nadu (8%).
Eight of Maharashtra’s 48 MPs are women (17%), while West Bengal, with women comprising nearly a quarter of its MPs (10 out of 42), does slightly better.
Other states at or closer to the quarter mark are Himachal Pradesh (1 out of 4) and Gujarat (6 out of 26).
This data is derived from the current Lok Sabha composition, which takes into account the bypolls that have taken place since 2019. As things stand, 27 seats are vacant, including three in UP, two in Maharashtra, and one in West Bengal. The vacant seats include those vacated by two women MPs, Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli, as she joined the Rajya Sabha) and Mahua Moitra (Krishnanagar, who was expelled).
Education Levels
According to an analysis by legislative research non-profit PRS, there is no significant difference in the educational qualifications of men and women MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha.
While 48% of male MPs are graduates, the number is 43% among women. Twenty-eight percent of women MPs are postgraduates against 23% of their male counterparts. At 7%, the number of doctorate-holders is the same among men and women.
PRS research further shows that women’s attendance – a mark of parliamentary participation – is slightly lower (77%) than that for men (80%).