Steady progress over the years but election fight still tough for women

Even if they win in a contest, it is not certain that political parties will field them again

Congress legislator Shafia Zubair won the Ramgarh seat when Rajasthan held assembly elections in 2018. She isn’t contesting the elections on Saturday: The Congress has fielded Zubair Khan, a former legislator, in Ramgarh  instead. He is Shafia’s husband.

All major parties voted for the women’s reservation bill in Parliament in September, but gender parity in Indian politics has miles to go. Women candidates comprise just a tenth of all the contesting and re-contesting candidates in four states holding elections. The number of women candidates has steadily increased in Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram in the last three elections (Telangana is holding elections too, but consolidated data for it isn’t available).  

About 13 per cent of the 1,178 candidates in Chhattisgarh in 2023 are women: The highest among the four states, according to a 'Business Standard' analysis based on data from the Election Commission and the Association for Democratic Reforms. Women account for 10 per cent of all candidates in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram each.

Fewer women contest elections again. Of the 173 candidates contesting elections again in Rajasthan, only 14 per cent are women. In Chhattisgarh, 15 per cent of such candidates were women and in MP, the number was 7 per cent (chart 1).

Mizoram elected a woman legislator in a by-election in Hrangturzo constituency in 2014: The first time it did so since 1987.

In the four states the analysis considered, there are four male candidates for every woman contestant who won an election in 2018. (Chart 2)

The Congress and the BJP have allotted less than a fifth of their tickets to women in the four states. Of the 559 candidates fielded by the Congress, 78 are women (14 per cent). There are 543 BJP candidates, of whom 65 are women (12 per cent). (Chart 3)

“Despite the promise in their manifestos, political parties don't give tickets to women candidates. Women leave and fight elections on their own as they don’t get support from their parties even if they have been loyal party workers for ages,” said Angellica Aribam, founder of Femme First Foundation, a non-profit.