April 17 this year will be remembered for two reasons. First, a united Opposition unexpectedly defeated a surprise attempt by the BJP to strong-arm implementation of a 2023 constitutional amendment providing 33 per cent reserved seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, by proposing that seats in the Lok Sabha be increased from the cap of 550 to 850. A united Opposition supported the intention to initiate quotas for women MPs. However, they rejected the bundling of this proposal with an increase in the size of the Lok Sabha without a clear understanding of whether and how the share of states in the total strength of MPs would remain unchanged, or whether sitting MPs would lose out and be replaced by women MPs.
Second, the Union home minister implicitly, albeit verbally, enunciated a principle of painless top-down representational reform, assuring the more developed states — some of whom are the BJP’s allies in government — that their existing overweight share in total MPs — an outcome of lower population growth than in the less-developed states — would not be altered to their detriment. Low population density smaller states in the hills and in the Northeast were also similarly reassured. But an absence of trust between the BJP and the Opposition and the tempting opportunity to mar the BJP’s parliamentary record of legislative achievements, strengthened the resolve of the Opposition to play spoiler.
Opinion varies on whether the BJP lost out or won by courting legislative risk in the middle of the ongoing Assembly elections in four states and one Union territory, of which three — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — are Opposition-ruled states. Was it the hubris of power? More likely it was intentional. A quick win could burnish implementation credentials and lay claim to a progressive agenda. Should the gambit fail — as it did — the united Opposition could be labelled anti-women’s empowerment. Heads I win, tails you lose. Whether women bought into this narrative will be known on May 4, when the Assembly election results are announced.
Either way, enhancing the share of women in Parliament has got tied to enlarging the size of the Lok Sabha and the state legislatures, thereby insulating the sitting and prospective MPs — mostly male — from dislocation. Instead, the taxpayer must pay for the collective political inability of political parties to nominate and support more women candidates to fight elections. Comparisons with richer economies, where the share of women in Parliament and the cost of political representation, including as a share of GDP, are higher, offer few lessons on least cost options for India.
That the share of women and third genders in Parliament should increase is without doubt. India ranks a sorry 147th out of 179 countries in the International Parliamentary Union 2024 database on women’s representation in the lower house. Average women’s representation increased globally from 11.3 per cent in 1995 to 27.2 per cent in 2025. India is still at the 14 per cent level. For political parties, “winnability” is the primary criterion in candidate choices, not representational equity. But just as surely, the selection bias favours men.
Consider also that the representation of women in high political office is slim. No woman has ever been a home minister in the Union government — unless she was also Prime Minister — the sole case of Indira Gandhi. Ditto for the finance minister till 2019, since when Nirmala Sitharaman has enjoyed an unbroken run. In the case of external affairs minister without also being PM, the record is a bit better — Indira Gandhi 1966-67 and then Sushma Swaraj of the BJP 2014-2019.
Persistent patriarchy in Indian politics indicates that seat quotas in Parliament might be necessary to initiate a pattern of shared power across the gender divide. Hopefully, quotas for women will also apply to the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The real question is: how representational gender equity should be balanced with state-level representational justice and the need for fiscal prudence since resources are limited.
What next? Three options present themselves.
First, the BJP could lead from the front — as befits a party, set to be in power in the Lok Sabha for a continuous fifteen years or more. A voluntary target increasing the proportion of their women candidates over the next three election cycles, to 33 per cent by 2039 would be spectacular. This would force and enable other smaller parties to follow. In 2024, 16 per cent of the BJPs candidates were women, 44 per cent of whom won; 29 per cent of the TMC’s candidates were women, and 92 per cent won. Thirteen per cent of the Congress’ candidates were women, and 34 per cent won. Women candidates exceeded the party’s overall success rate in the TMC and the Congress. Smaller parties, like the Samajwadi Party, DMK or JD(U), mirrored the BJP’s experience of women candidates trailing the party’s average success rate. The problem lies within the parties, not without.
Second, Parliament could consider measures to enhance the demand for more women candidates. Under the MP Local Area Development Scheme, each MP nominates development projects up to Rs 50 million in value per year in their constituencies. Consider variable allocation with women MPs getting 20 per cent more than male MPs, whilst keeping the total outlay for this scheme constant, other than inflation adjustments. This structural reform, empowering women, could pivot political party and voter preference towards women candidates, obviating the need for increasing the number of MPs or devising convoluted formulas for preserving the share of MPs per state.
Third, party nominations for women lag on the spurious grounds that sufficient “suitable” candidates are not to be found. Traditionally, the transition for politicians with village and city level political experience to state and the national levels has been very tenuous. Language skills and inadequate “erudition” were once a barrier. But technology and a more even spread of development has levelled the culture and education gap. Panchayats and urban local bodies in about twenty states implemented 50 per cent quotas for women more than fifteen years ago. About two million political leaders experienced in local government provide the ballast for the state and national leaders of tomorrow. Political parties ignore them at their own peril and do a disservice to the country, if they fail to adopt a meritocratic system of governance, where competence is privileged over connections.
The writer is Distinguished Fellow, Chintan Research Foundation, and was earlier with the IAS and the World Bank
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
