India trails: Even Bangladesh, Pakistan have more women in Lower House of Parliament

The Women's Reservation Bill, recently passed with near unanimity in the lower house ofthe Indian Parliament, has reignited a critical debate concerning the representation of women in the country's political landscape.

India currently ranks 141 out of 185 countries in terms of the percentage of women in the Lok Sabha, with only 15 per centrepresentation.

This figure not only falls below the global average but also lags behind neighbouring countrieslike Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal.

Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organisation of national parliaments, underscores India's gender disparity issue.

The organisation's data reveals that India's lower house of Parliament has a mere 15 per cent representation of women, significantly lower than the global average of 26 per cent. This assessment considers the lower houses of parliaments in countries with bicameral legislatures (comprising an upper and lower house), as well as unicameral legislatures with only one house.

Comparative analysis

Pakistan, a neighbouring nation, has taken steps to address women's representation since 1956, currently maintaining a 20 per centrepresentation of women in its National Assembly. The country had reserved 17 per centof seats for women in the National Assembly back in 2002.

In Bangladesh, which has a unicameral legislature, 50 out of 350 seats in the 'Jatiya Sangsad' are reserved for women, resulting in a current parliamentary representation of 21 per cent women.

Nepal, with a representation of 33.09 per centwomen, has made significant strides, although it is still close to the one-third of seats reserved for women since 2007 in its lower house, known as the House of Representatives.

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Comparatively, countries like the United States and the United Kingdom have 29 per centand 35 per centwomen representatives, respectively. However, some countries, including Sri Lanka (5 per cent), Qatar (4 per cent), Oman (2 per cent), and Kuwait (3 per cent), have a lower percentage of women representatives than India.

On the contrary, nations like New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates boast an equal representation of men and women at 50 per cent. At the pinnacle of this list is Rwanda, with an impressive 61 per centof women representatives in its lower house.

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