In a recent parliamentary development, the Women’s Reservation Bill, which was introduced in the Parliament on Tuesday, addresses a pressing issue for India. The nation currently ranks 141st out of 185 countries when it comes to the representation of women in the Lok Sabha. Astonishingly, India’s figure stands at a mere 15%, a statistic that not only falls below the global average but also lags behind neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal.
Data sourced from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organization encompassing national parliaments, reveals that the proportion of women in India’s lower house of Parliament is a meager 15%, a significant departure from the global average of 26%. This data encompasses lower houses of parliament for nations with bicameral legislatures (consisting of an upper and lower house) as well as unicameral legislatures with only one house.
Comparatively, Pakistan, which has been actively pursuing women’s reservation since 1956, boasts a representation of 20% in its National Assembly, having reserved 17% of seats for women as early as 2002. Meanwhile, Bangladesh, with a unicameral legislature, reserves 50 out of its 350 seats in the ‘Jatiya Sangsad’ for women, resulting in a current parliamentary representation of 21%.
Nepal, with a representation rate of 33.09%, performs relatively better, but this is closely aligned with the one-third reservation for women that was established in 2007. Nepal’s lower house is termed the House of Representatives.
Interestingly, nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom surpass India with figures of 29% and 35%, respectively. On the flip side, some countries with lower percentages of women representatives than India include Sri Lanka (5%), Qatar (4%), Oman (2%), and Kuwait (3%).
Remarkably, countries like New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates have achieved gender parity in their representation, with equal proportions of men and women at 50%. At the pinnacle of this list is Rwanda, where an impressive 61% of representatives in its lower house are women.
The Women’s Reservation Bill, presented by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, aims to secure 33% reservation for women in both the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. However, it’s worth noting that the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, currently has a women’s representation of approximately 14%, according to government-provided data from the previous year.
