Political parties shy of fielding women
India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) has found that the percentage of women in the fray has improved marginally and their number continues to be abysmal.
In Short
- DIU has found that in the five Lok Sabha elections since 1999, the percentage of women contestants are extremely low
- Of the 435 BJP candidates, only 12.6 per cent are women
- BSP is contesting a total of 383 seats, with only 6.3 per cent women candidates
Women politicians have made it to the top headlines this poll season. Be it Priyanka Gandhi's formal entry into politics, Mayawati joining hands with the Yadavs, Hema Malini's luxurious campaign or Sadhvi Pragya's candidature, women politicians have trended well both on mainstream and social media.
This impact, however, does not translate into representation of women in politics. It has been widely reported that representation of women in the Indian Parliament has been extremely poor throughout, and the 2019 elections do not make much of a difference.
Analysing the candidates contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) has found that the percentage of women in the fray has improved marginally and their number continues to be abysmal.
Low number of women contestants
Women representation in Lok Sabha has never touched 12 per cent since Independence despite the fact that they constitute 48 per cent of India's population according to Census 2011 data. One of the major reasons for this disparity is the low number of women contesting elections.
DIU has found that in the five Lok Sabha elections since 1999, the percentage of women contestants are extremely low.
In 1999, of the total 4,648 total candidates, only 6.11 per cent were women. In 2004, it improved marginally to 6.53 per cent. In 2009, there were only 7 per cent women contestants, which reached 8.01 in 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, around 9 per cent of the total candidates are women.
Better growth rate
Though the percentage of women contesting the elections overall is low, their growth rate has been higher compared to their male counterparts in the time period under consideration.
In 2004, the rise in the number of women candidates was 20 per cent whereas for men it was 14 per cent.
In 2009, male candidates saw a 32 per cent rise; number of women candidates grew by 37.28 per cent.
In the 2014 elections, the number of male candidates grew by 0.8 per cent, whereas for women it was 15 per cent.
The total number of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections has come down from 8,252 in 2014 to 8,039 in 2019.
Interestingly, only male candidates have seen a fall. The number of male candidates fell by 3.6 per cent whereas the number of female candidates increased by 7 per cent.
The 2019 election
Which political party is giving a level playing field to women?
A total of 719 women are contesting the Lok Sabha elections this time. Of these, 220 are fighting independently. In the 2014 elections, 206 independent women had contested the Lok Sabha elections, none had won.
In absolute numbers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fielding the maximum women candidates at 55, followed by the Congress at 54. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) comes third with 24 female candidates, followed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that has given tickets to 23 women.
The women's reservation bill, aimed at providing women 33 per cent representation in power, is still stuck in the Parliament and our analysis found only two parties fielding more than 33 per cent women candidates.
Naam Tamilar Katchi, a Tamil Nadu-based party, is the most women-friendly party with 47.8 per cent female candidates. Percentage of women candidates in the Trinamool Congress comes next at 37.1 per cent.
Though the BJP and the Congress are fielding the maximum number of women candidates, but percentage-wise it is negligible.
Of the 435 BJP candidates, only 12.6 per cent are women. The situation in the Congress is pretty similar as only 12.9 per cent of its total candidates are women.
The Mayawati-led BSP is contesting a total of 383 seats, but women candidates account for only 6.3 per cent.
DIU found that there were 29 small parties fielding only women candidates, but they were contesting only one or two seats.
Constituency-wise numbers
The maximum number of women candidates is contesting from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. There are nine women in the fray here. Then come Vaishali (Bihar) with eight women candidates, and Mumbai North and Bhopal with seven each.
In percentage terms, Bhadrak in Odisha is the only constituency where the number of men and women contesting a seat is equal. There are four men and four women in the fray, making women candidates 50 per cent here.
Following Bhadrak are Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh (46 per cent), Dausa in Rajasthan (45 per cent), Ranaghat (43 per cent) and Uluberia (40 per cent) in West Bengal.
The reason why Chandigarh doesn't fare well in percentage terms is because the total number of candidates contesting that seat is 36. So is the case with other constituencies that fared well in absolute numbers.
Among the states, Goa and Mizoram have the maximum percentage of women contestants - 17 per cent each. After these, come Odisha and Chhattisgarh, where the percentage of women candidates is 14 per cent.
Tripura, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala are the states where the percentage of women candidates was higher than 10 per cent.
DIU also found that there were 164 seats where women are not contesting at all.