@prashanthamine
Mumbai: On every International Women’s Day on March 8, we love to sing odes to how we revere, respect our women, announce one percent reduction in Stamp Duty charges if properties are registered in the name of the woman. But when it comes to Women’s representation in Parliament, India is ranked 148th in the list of 190 nations, way below neighbours Nepal (45th), China (86th) and Pakistan (116th). Countries like Rwanda, Cuba and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the top three globally ranked countries having the maximum number of women parliamentarians in their national parliament.
This was revealed in the monthly ranking report of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) for January 1, 2021 that was released here on Monday.
The top 10 countries having maximum number of women parliamentarians in their national parliament include – Rwanda, Cuba, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nicaragua, New Zealand, Mexico, Sweden, Grenada, Andorra and Bolivia
What is worse still is that India is ranked way below nations like Timor-Leste (32nd), Lao (65th), Mali (67th) and Cabo Verde (75th).
Also Read: On Intl Women’s Day MVA announces one percent concession in stamp duty for women
The IPU ranks countries and their parliament according to the percentage of seats held by women in lower house or single chamber parliament’s.
This is a grim reminder that the Womens Reservation Bill was first introduced in the Parliament in 1996, a good 25 years ago. The revised, amended – The Constitution (One Hundred and Eight Amendment) Bill 2008, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on May 6, 2008. Since then, it has been in cold storage.
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies. The allocation of seats sh all be determined by such authority as prescribed by the parliament.
Besides this, one-third of all Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) seats shall be reserved for women. The reserved seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the state or union territories. The reservation for women shall cease to exist after 15 years of the commencement of the Amendment Act.
The law is yet to see the light of the day. It is only the Congress that guarantees 15 percent reservation for women in the party organisation.
As per the IPU rankings, Rwanda which has 80 seat parliament, 61.3% are women parliamentarians, that is 49 are women Members of Parliament (MPs), Cuba which has 586 seats in parliament, 53.4% are women, that is 313 are women MPs, UAE comes third where half of the 40-seat parliament, that is 20 are women MPs, that is 50%.
There is interesting tale as to why Rwanda ranks first in the list that is largely due to the horrific 1994 genocide which left the male to female ratio in the country skewed to 60:70 in favour of women. Most of the women who survived were uneducated and unaccustomed to hold jobs outside their homes. Rwanda was forced to undertake sweeping reforms that mandated women hold 30% political seats.
India is ranked 148th based on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and June 6, 2020 Rajya Sabha elections. Out of the 540 Lok Sabha seats, 78 are women MPs which in percentage terms is 14.4%. After the June 6, 2020 elections to March 8, 2021 the Rajya Sabha, out of the 241 seats, 27 are women MPs, which comes to 11.2%.
The global average in terms of women representation in national parliaments across the world is as follows: out of the total 38,663 MPs from the lower chamber or unicameral chamber, 7,438 are women MPs from upper chambers and women MPs in all chambers is 46,101.
There are 28,755 male MPs in lower chambers of parliament across the world and 5,594 male MPs in the upper chamber and 34,349 male MPs in all the chambers in parliaments around the world.
Where as, out of the total 38,663 MPs, there are just 9,908 women MPs in the lower chambers and 1,844 women MPs in upper chambers and 11,752 women MPs in all the chambers in parliaments around the world. In global perspective and in percentage terms, 25.6% are women MPs in lower chambers, 24.8% in upper chambers and 25.5% women MPs in all the chambers in parliaments across the world.
The rest of the prominent nations that figure in the list of 190 countries, rank wise are as follows: South Africa (12), Spain (16), France (27), Italy (35), United Kingdom (39), Germany (49), Australia (50), USA (67), Indonesia (110), Russia (138), Congo (151) and Japan (166).
