National parties fall short of 33% women's representation: ADR report

Only 10% fielded in 20 Assembly polls since passage of women's Bill in 2023, says report

Only 4,073 (10.2 per cent) were women candidates out of the 39,789 candidates who contested the Lok Sabha (LS) 2024 elections and 20 assembly polls held across the country after the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in September 2023.

 

An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) found that none of the national parties met the one-third (33 per cent) benchmark for women candidates in the 2024 LS polls.

 

While the BJP and Congress fielded women candidates in the range of 13-16 per cent, several state parties recorded substantially higher levels of female representation. These included Naam Tamilar Katchi (50 per cent), Biju Janata Dal (33 per cent), Rashtriya Janata Dal (29 per cent), and Trinamool Congress (25 per cent).

 

In the 2024 LS polls, out of a total of 8,360 candidates analysed, only 800 (9.6 per cent) were women. Out of 543 constituencies, 152 (28 per cent) had zero women candidates.  

 

There is a 50 per cent quota for women in the urban local bodies, and a significant rise is also observed in the registration of women as voters and female political participation. However, this has not translated into increased representation in the state assemblies or Parliament, it said.

 

In the LS, the number of women MPs has increased only marginally: 58 in 2009, 62 in 2014, 78 in 2019, and 74 in 2024.

 

Women MPs in the Rajya Sabha increased from 7 per cent in 1952 to 13 per cent in 2023.

 

The ADR report said the lack of representation of women is primarily caused by male-dominated party structures, lack of inner party democracy, societal norms, expectations that prioritise traditional gender roles, caregiving duties, institutional barriers, patriarchal norms, stereotypes and biases based on physical characteristics, cultural biases, highly centralised and non-transparent ticket distribution within political parties and the long prevalent notion that women are not as electable as men.

 

Other factors are gender-based violence, political violence, and intimidation, especially during elections, the ADR said.

 

The report said the Women's Reservation Bill was finally passed in September 2023 as the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill after six attempts over almost three decades.

 

Implementation is expected after the next census and delimitation exercise. “The question, therefore, remains as to whether there is enough political will to make this commitment a law… The timely conduct of the census planned in 2026-27 is crucial to implement this bill by 2029,” the ADR said.

 

Every registered political party should be legally mandated to give one-third of the total number of party tickets it distributes at every election to women candidates, the report recommended.