19/02/2019 - Social Justice | GS II | G.S II - Social Justice | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 6 years

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was the first Indian woman to contest an election. Influenced by Irish-Indian suffragist Margaret Cousins and by Mahatma Gandhi, she was a strong voice for a woman’s right to elect and be elected.

KEY POINTS

· According to a list compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, ndia ranks 153 out of 190 nations in the percentage of women in the lower house of world parliaments.

· India had 65 women out of 545 members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the 16th Lok Sabha in May 2014, for a 12% representation, showing very low percentage of Women representation in parliament.

Issues regarding representation

· While the allocation of total seats to states is done on the basis of population, the resultant women’s representation at 12% is far below the actual population of women.

· A fully representative Parliament allows the different experiences of genders to craft priorities and shape the economic and social future of a democratic society.

· There is documented evidence both at the international level and at the gram panchayat (village) level to suggest that a greater representation of women in elected office balances the process and prioritizations that elected bodies focus on.

· This also has been proven in case of India via many success stories, but at the National this has to be replicated.

Possible remedial measures

(A) Quotas for women in Parliament.

(B) Reservation for women in political parties.

(C) Awareness, education and role modelling that encourage women towards politics.

(D) Election commission led Reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, as the bill for reservation of Women has been lapsed, it does allow for a more meritocratic and less complex method of reservation for women.

@Pallavi 6 years

Please check.

IAS Parliament 6 years

Good answer. Try including Election Commission led effort for women representation in political parties. Keep Writing.

Raj 6 years

Kindly Review. Thanks!!

IAS Parliament 6 years

Try to modify the structure of the answer. { Model structure - Need for more women parliamentarians > their outcomes with examples > whats more can be done}. Keep Writing.