Women yet to touch the mark of 50 in the Lok Sabha
GENERAL ELECTIONS – 2009
Backgrounder-13
The representation of women in the Lok Sabha yet to touch the mark of 50. The nearest when women members could reach this mark was in the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 General Elections when 49 women candidates were elected which was barely 9.02% of the total Lok Sabha Seats .
However, in the General Elections 2004, the number of women elected to the Lower House again came down to 45, which, incidentally, was the second highest representation of women in the Lok Sabha since its inception. Percentage-wise, it was only 8.29% of the total seats.
Apart from the above two, there were only three other occasions when women candidates could touch the figure of 40 in the Lok Sabha. In the 8th Lok Sabha (General Elections-1984) 42 women, in the 11th Lok Sabha (General Elections-1996) 40 women and in the 12th Lok Sabha (General Elections-1998) 43 women were elected to the Lower House. This also means that prior to 1996, there was only one occasion (in 1984) when the women elected to Lok Sabha could even touch the figure of forties.
The lowest number of women elected to the Lok Sabha was in the General Elections in 1977 when only 19 women reached the Lower House which was only 3.50% of the total Lok Sabha seats (542 at that time). There was no other occasion in the history of Lok Sabha when the women did not even reach the mark of 20.
As far as number of women contestants is concerned, there were 599 women aspirants were in fray in the General Elections-1996 followed by 355 women candidates in 2004 and 326 in 1991. It may also be mentioned here that it was only in 1980 General Elections for the 7th Lok Sabha when the women contestants crossed the mark of 100 as prior to that, the number of women contestant was always below 100.
A high-resolution graphic on women’s performance in the successive general elections is available at www. pib.nic.in/elections2009
Main Election Cell/ 20032009 MP/RM/VBA/NCJ
