Statsguru: How literate are Indian legislators? Here's what data reveals

A recent Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report gave a glimpse of the socioeconomic profile of sitting members of legislative Assemblies (MLAs) of 28 states and three Union Territories. The report mentioned education profile, gender-wise distribution and age patterns of all sitting MLAs in the country.

 

It analysed 4,092 sitting MLAs and found that roughly 33 per cent of them were non-graduates. While five MLAs are illiterate, 31.72 per cent of all MLAs have education between Class 5 and 12. Around 66 per cent are either graduates or postgraduates, some even having doctorates (Chart 1). 

 

Of the six states with the highest number of MLAs, in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, formed in 2022, more than 75 per cent members are at least graduates – 34.24 per cent postgraduates. The Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram Assemblies also have some of the highest shares of graduate MLAs (Chart 2). 

 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) have the highest number of sitting MLAs in the country – at 1,653 and 646, respectively. Of them, 33.81 per cent of BJP MLAs, and 28.95 per cent of INC MLAs, are non-graduates. For the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), this share is 43.09 per cent (Chart 3). 

 

As for age, more than 60 per cent of India’s sitting state legislators are in the 41-60 age group, with 11 per cent below 40 years (Chart 4). 

 

Only 9.78 per cent of India’s MLAs are women. Of the six states with the highest number of MLAs, in the West Bengal Assembly, formed in 2021, around 15 per cent of the MLAs are women. Chhattisgarh has the highest share, at 21 per cent (Chart 5). 

 

Among the major political parties, the All India Trinamool Congress has one of the largest political representations of women, with 16.53 per cent of its sitting MLAs being women. For both the BJP and INC, the share of women, at roughly 10 per cent, is the same as the national average (Chart 6).