Womens participation in Indian national
elections
GILLES VERNIERS, ISHIKA SHARAN, AISHWARYA SUNAAD
MUCH
has already been written about womens representation in Indian national
politics.1 In this article, we add to existing
contributions by examining recent data from Indias 2019 general elections and
use that data to identify changes and continuities in various aspects of
womens participation in politics as national electoral candidates.
Womens representation
remains low: As Carole Spary recently observed, [the
2019] election failed to make significant progress in increasing womens
presence among election candidates and newly elected Members of Parliament,
largely as a result of major parties limited efforts to increase womens
nomination as candidates.2 With 14.4%
of the seats currently occupied by women, India currently ranks 149 in the list
of countries by proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments.3 Indias score is also lower than the
average calculated by the World Bank for South Asia (18.9%). With 5.4% of women
MPs, only Sri Lanka does worse.
The following chart,
however, indicates that if the overall level of representation of women in the Lok Sabha is low, it is nonetheless
increasing. The rate of increase of women MPs (+2.8%) is the highest registered
since 1984 (2.9%). 44 women were elected that year, against 30 in the previous
election. In 2019, womens representation increased even though there were only
1.3% more women candidates compared to 2014. What accounts for the variation in
representation is the strong overall performance of the BJP, which got 42 women
elected out of 303 seats won, and a higher rate of nomination among Trinamool and BJD candidates, which led to seven and six
women MPs to be elected on these two parties tickets. Only six women won on a
Congress ticket.
Landslide elections favour
womens representation, as women candidates also benefit from the strong
support obtained by their party. In 1984, the small increase of women
representation came from the fact that most Congress women contestants won
their seats (39 out of 44).
In 2019, 47 of the 78 women
elected won on a national party ticket against 28 on state-based party tickets.
Table1 shows how skewed womens inclusion is in most parties, the Trinamool and the BJD being the exception among major
state-based parties.
For most parties, the
number of women candidates remains abysmally low. Many parties even failed to
field a single woman candidate. National parties only do marginally better than
state-based and local parties and few women run as independent candidates.
As noted by Jensenius,
womens nominations tend to be higher in the 84 constituencies reserved for SCs
and 47 reserved for ST than in the remaining general seats, since 1996.4 The 2019 figures confirm that
observation, as women comprised 10.8% of all candidates in seats reserved for
SCs, 14.3% of all candidates in seats reserved for STs, against 8.3% in
non-reserved seats. Women make up also a quarter of all MPs elected in seats
reserved for STs, 14.3% of MPs elected in seats reserved for STs and 13.1% of
all non-reserved seats.5
A
comparison of these numbers by parties in the last two elections reveal some variations. While the BJP did increase womens
nominations in 2019, it did so mostly in non-reserved seats and in seats
reserved for STs. For the Congress, it maintained its previous ratio of women
nominations in non-reserved seats but fielded significantly more women in seats
reserved for SCs. Compared to Jensenius data, which
examined the distribution of nominations across reserved and non-reserved seats
before and after 1996, womens nominations have increased across all categories
of seats, but more so in reserved seats.
Percentages, however, can
be misleading. Even though the share of women contestants fielded by Congress
in 2019 was identical to 2014, Congress in fact fielded fewer women, as it
contested fewer seats (421 against 464).
Among other parties, there
are also significant variations. In Odisha, Naveen Patnaik fielded 6 of its 7 women candidates in reserved
seats (3 SC and 3 ST), out of 8 reserved seats. In West Bengal, the Trinamool fielded 5 of its 17 women candidates in reserved
seats (out of 12). By confining womens representation to reserved seats,
unlike the Trinamool which distributed womens
candidacy across seats types, the BJD made the choice of increasing womens
representation without diluting male representation in general seats.
In 2019, 47% of all women MPs were elected from only
four states: Uttar Pradesh (14%), West Bengal (14%), Maharashtra (10%) and Odisha (9%). Large, populated states like Bihar or Gujarat,
barely contributed. South India, which accounts for 130 seats in the Lok Sabha, only sent 11 women to
Parliament.
Table 1
Party-wise distribution of
women MPs and candidates in the 2019 general election
Source: TCPD - Indian Candidates and Legislators Dataset,
derived from ECI reports. This table excludes state-based parties that did not field
a single woman candidate, such as AGP, AIMIM, AUDF, DMDK, INLD, JKNPP, Kerala
Congress, Kerala Congress (M), MNNPF, PMK, RLD, RPI and SDF.
Table 2
Percentage of women
contestants in parliamentary constituencies by seat category in the 2014
and 2019 general
elections
Source: Adapted from Jensenius (2017).6
These variations are
consistent with state-assembly level data, which shows that southern states
generally have a bad record in terms of womens inclusion in electoral
politics. Recent state elections have even seen women representation drop
significantly in Tamil Nadu (from 9% to 5%) and remain extremely low in Kerala,
at 8%. Northern states tend to have slightly higher womens representation in
state assemblies, particularly across the Hindi Belt (Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh) and in West Bengal. Women are practically absent from candidates
lists across the North East, in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh. In general
elections, the small number of seats allotted to smaller states alters that
perception.
In this section, we look at various socio-demographic
characteristics of women contesting on major parties tickets and MPs, and
compare them, when possible, to their male counterparts. Previous contributions
tell us that female MPs tend to be more educated and wealthier, more upper
caste, less likely to be farmers or from business.8 Women MPs and candidates are also more
dynastic.9 The argument goes that parties attempt to
mitigate the perceived weakness of female candidates by selecting them more
harshly on conventional markers of winnability.
Contrary to the argument often made by opponents to the Womens Reservation
Bill, politics does not necessarily attract more elite women; it is simply the
basis on which parties tend to recruit them.
On the education variable, data for the 2019
contestants shows that women were still by and large slightly more educated
than men. Among major parties, 75.4% of all women contestants had a higher
education degree and above, against 64% of all men. This is a higher proportion
of women contestants with graduate degrees and above than in 2014 (71%), while
the percentage of male contestants with degrees is identical. Among winners
however, the percentage of male MPs with degrees is higher than womens (75.6%
against 70%).
Again in 2019, women are more likely to be members of
upper castes than men (33.3% against 29.2%), fewer are members of the OBCs
(19.2% against 23.4%) and Intermediary Castes (14% against 16%); more women are
represented among Scheduled Tribes (15.4% against 9%) and less among Scheduled
Castes (12.8% against 16%). There are only two Muslim women represented in the Lok Sabha, whereas there are 19
men.10
Table 3
State-wise distribution of women candidates and MPs in
the 2019 General Election
Source: TCPD - Indian
Candidates and Legislators Dataset, derived from ECI reports.
In terms of wealth, we note
that in 2019, men and women MPs were equally wealthy, with median net assets of
17.3 crore. In 2014, there was a gap of 4.2 crores on average between male and female MPs, according to
affidavit data (ADR). The cost of entry in politics is now so high that it
erases differences of wealth between men and women MPs.
The main variation between men and women MPs lies with
their dynastic profile. As documented in a previous article in this journal, we
found that Thirty percent of all dynastic main party candidates are women,
against 8% of all non-dynastic candidates.11 Overall,
we found that 26.3% of MPs belong to political families, against 15.8% of
their candidates, and that half of Congress and BJPs women candidates
belonged to political families.
This is consistent with previous findings that measured
the prevalence of dynasticism among MPs.12 Quoting Chandra, Bohlken,
and Chauchards dataset (2014), Amrita Basu observes that an overwhelming proportion of this small
number of women parliamentarians – 58% in 2004, 69% in 2009, and 43% in
2014 – have had family members precede them in politics, making them the
group that is most dependent on dynastic ties for representation.13 For 2019, the percentage is 50% (39 out
of 78).
The difference with past recent elections is the fact
that the BJP seems now more inclined to recruit dynastic candidates than in the
past. 47% of its women candidates belong to political families, against 13% of
men. For Congress, the ratio of women candidates belonging to political
families increased to 51%, compared to 2014, against 24% of all its male
candidates.
The higher nomination of
women by the Trinamool and the BJD also affects the
percentage of women dynastic candidates. Four of the nine Trinamool
women MPs belong to political families (against 35% of their female
candidates), while four of the seven BJD women MPs belong to political families
(against 57% of their female candidates).
In their 2011 article on dynasticism in Indian politics, Kanchan
Chandra and Wamiq Umaira
argue that parties with strong organizational structures, like the BJP, do not
need to rely on the dynastic ties of their candidates.14 We find in 2019 that the increased
competitiveness of electoral politics has brought parties that do have such
strong organizational structures, such as the BJP or the Trinamool,
to increasingly rely on dynastic candidates, particularly among women. This is
in tune with an overall transformation of the ways the BJP recruits its candidates
since 2014: more pragmatic, more inclined to host defectors or dynasts. Across
states, the BJP has in part emulated the caste-based, elitist recruitment
approach of regional parties.15
The fact that parties tend to apply their candidates
selection criteria more stringently on women compared to men, also accounts for
the higher percentage of women dynastic candidates. Besides, nominating women
relatives of male politicians is also a means to ingratiate men in the party by
enabling them to expand their own familys political influence. In Uttar
Pradesh, the BJP often offers tickets to relatives of high-profile defectors
who join the party, such as Sanghamitra Maurya, BJP MP from Badaun and
daughter of former BJP minister Swami Prasad Maurya.
Finally, we also find, as
Chandra et al. did, that smaller parties tend to mostly field dynastic women
candidates, often directly related to party leaders. The RJD for instance,
fielded spouses of three imprisoned former high-profile RJD representatives who
could not contest.
Lastly, do women MPs
careers differ from mens? In this section, we look at individual MPs career
trajectories, drawn from the Trivedi Centre for
Political Datas individual incumbency dataset. This dataset provides
information on the number of times candidates in Indian elections have
contested and been elected.
In terms of career length, women do not seem to be
particularly disadvantaged. From 1977 to 2019, Indian MPs have served on
average nearly two terms. The difference between male and female MPs is
negligible, even though men are slightly more likely to serve two complete
terms than women. The same observation applies for the number of times
candidates contest.
Incumbent male MPs are also
generally more likely to be renominated than incumbent
female MPs. Barring in the late 1990s, the strike rate of women re-running
incumbents is systematically lower than men (35% on average from 1980 to 2019,
against 40% for men).
As a result of these
variations, women are more likely to be new entrants in politics. Barring two
elections in the 1980s, the ratio of first time MPs among women has always been
higher than men.
Few women finally belong to
the stable political class, defined as the group of elected representatives
who have been elected three times or more. Of the 543 Lok
Sabha MPs elected in 2019, 120 belong to that
category. Only twelve are women. Maneka Gandhi,
elected eight times, is Indias longest serving female MP, followed by Sonia
Gandhi. Among the women candidates, only 18 contestants (out of 752) had served
more than two terms, against 167 for the men. Womens professional politicians
strike rate (ratio of seats won to seats contested) is also slightly lower than
mens (66% against 71%).
These figures have varied over time. In 2014, there were only eight women part of the stable political class:
Sonia Gandhi (Congress) and Gawali Bhavana Pundlikrao (Shiv Sena) were the only two non-BJP women MPs who belonged to
this category. The highest number was sixteen in 1999. For a country of Indias
size, that is a minuscule number of long-standing professional female
politicians.16
We argue in this article
that womens representation should not be only measured in terms of tickets and
seats. Other sociological and political variables, such as caste, religion,
political family affiliations, affidavit data and data on their career
trajectories, are now available and can be used to assess their
socio-demographic profile and their career trajectories in greater detail. This
information can help assess the impact women politicians can have on national
politics, and the limits imposed by various political constraints.
Womens representation in
Indias Lok Sabha is not
only very low, but also dispersed across states and parties, making their
presence marginal within states and parties as well. While they face the same
career constraints as men – short political longevity, high competitive
pressure, high individual anti-incumbency – the fact that their base
number is so low has a compounding effect on their political marginalization.
In a country of 1.4 billion, there are only at the moment 12 women members of
the Lok Sabha who can be
said to be career or professional politicians.
Recent elections, however, have shown that a few political parties have made more space for women candidates, recruiting new candidates also outside political dynastic networks. As Mirchandani and Verniers have argued elsewhere, recent examples of gender inclusion probably stem more from strategic electoral calculations than from a moral standpoint, which is encouraging.17 Once parties recognize the fact that there is no risk associated with fielding more women candidates, and that including more women candidates can in fact pay off given the growing participation of women as voters, they may become less averse to nominating them. But for the time being, variations in womens representation are more a function of major parties performance (landslide victories boost womens representation) than of parties concerns for gender equity.
1. V. Dutoya, Une demande faire au nom des femmes? Quotas et reprsentation politique des femmes en Inde et au Pakistan (1917-2010), Revue franaise de science politique 66(1), 2016, pp. 49-70. F.R. Jensenius, Competing Inequalities? On the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity in Candidate Nominations in Indian Elections, Government and Opposition 51(3), 2016, pp. 440-463. doi:10.1017/gov.2016.8. P. Rai, Electoral Participation of Women in India: Key Determinants and Barriers, Economic and Political Weekly 46(3), 2011, pp. 47-55. S.M. Rai & C. Spary (eds.), Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament. (First edition). Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2019. C. Spary, Female Political Leadership in India, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 45(3), 2007, pp. 253-277. doi:10.1080/14662040701516821. C. Spary, Women Candidates, Women Voters, and the Gender Politics of Indias 2019 Parliamentary Election, Contemporary South Asia, 28(2), 2020, pp. 223-241. doi:10.1080/09584935.2020.1765987.
2. Spary, 2020,
ibid.
3. See https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS
4. F.R. Jensenius,
2016, ibid., p. 452.
5. G. Verniers,
Verdict 2019 in Charts and Maps: Lok Sabha Has More Female MPs Than Ever Before, More Dynasts
Too, Scroll.in, 1 June 2019. Retrieved from https://scroll.in/article/925313/verdict-2019-in-charts-and-maps-lok-sabha-has-more-female-mps-than-ever-before-more-dynasts-too
6. F.R. Jensenius, Competing Inequalities? Government and Opposition 51(3), 2016, p. 454.
7. G. Verniers, V. Karthik KR, M. Kumar, and N. Agrawal,
Tamil Nadus New Assembly in 33 Charts: Lowest Women Representation in 25
Years, OBCs Dominate, Scroll.in, 10 May 2021. Retrieved from
https://scroll.in/article/994446/tamil-nadus-new-assembly-in-33-charts-lowest-women-representation-in-25-years-obcs-dominate
G. Verniers, Basim-u-Nissa, M. Kumar & N. Agrawal,
Is Kerala Really Inclusive? 33 Charts About MLAs in New Assembly Show Theres
Still Work to Be Done, Scroll.in, 13 May 2021. Retrieved from
https://scroll.in/article/994691/is-kerala-really-inclusive-33-charts-about-mlas-in-new-assembly-show-theres-still-work-to-be-done
8. V. Dutoya, 2016,
op. cit.
9. K. Chandra, Democratic Dynasties: State, Party, and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2016.
10. These figures do not consider subsequent by-elections.
11. G. Verniers & S. Ammassari, The Resilience of Dynasticism, Seminar 720, 2019.
12. K. Chandra, 2016, op. cit.; K. Chandra
& W. Umaira, Democratic Dynasties, Seminar (622),
2011.
13. A. Basu, Women, Dynasties, and Democracy in India, in K. Chandra (ed.), Democratic Dynasties. State, Party, and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2016, p. 137; pp. 136-172.
14. K. Chandra & W. Umaira, 2011, op. cit.
15. G. Verniers, Opportunism and Discontent: Party Hoppers in UP Politics, The Mojo Story, 2022, https://mojostory.com/pov/party-hoppers-in-up-politics/
16. There are of course career women politicians active in state politics, in the Rajya Sabha or serving as party presidents, but their representation in these spheres of power tend to be even lower than at the national level. Only in local bodies do we find a large number of women, owing to reservations.
17. M. Mirchandani & G. Verniers, How Mamatas Trinamool Broke the Glass Ceiling for Women in Politics, 22 March 2021. Retrieved from https://www.article-14.com/post/how-mamata-s-trinamool-broke-the-glass-ceiling-for-women-in-politics