Are women given opportunities in the assembly in india
Answers
Women’s representation in elected bodies, Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies is a source of huge disappointment. As we observed in a previous article, women occupy just 66 seats in the 543 member Lok Sabha, which is a mere 12%. The scenario for women Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) across all state assemblies in India is even worse, with the national average being a pitiable 9%. The best among them, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana have 14% representation while the worst states are Pondicherry and Nagaland, which have no women MLAs at all.
This being the dismal scenario, we were curious to see how India held up against the rest of the world in women’s representation. We looked at data on women in national parliaments (directly elected lower Houses) across the world from the an international organization of Parliaments, to situate India’s position on this yardstick. The findings, while busting popular myths about many countries, also show us the mirror on how far we lag behind in giving women the level playing field to be part of the political decision making process and why we need to do more to improve the situation.