(This article forms a part of the Data Point newsletter curated by The Hindu’s Data team. To get the newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here.)
A look at the participation of women in Indian politics and the achievements of women ministers
With the resignation of former speaker Trevor Mallard and the swearing-in of Soraya Peke-Mason as a lawmaker in New Zealand, the country’s Parliament now has more women than men for the first time. In the 120-strong Parliament, there are currently 60 female lawmakers and 59 men. One seat remains vacant.
New Zealand has a long history of electing women as lawmakers and ministers. In 1853, the country elected its first Parliament. In 1933, the country elected its first female MP, Elizabeth McCombs. The country saw its first woman Cabinet minister, Mabel Howard, in 1947. Jacinda Ardern, the current Prime Minister, is the third woman to lead the country after Jenny Shipley in 1997 and Helen Clark in 1999.
With the entry of Peke-Mason, New Zealand joins a handful of countries where at least half the lawmakers are women. About 61% of lawmakers in Rwanda are women, the highest in the world. Rwanda is followed by Cuba (53.4%) and Nicaragua (51.7%). In Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, half the lawmakers are women.
Click here to take a look at where other countries stand in representation of women in the Parliament.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation of national parliaments, only 26% of lawmakers globally are women. Notably, India’s share of women MPs is lower. As of October 29, only 81 out of 542 (14.9%) MPs in the Lok Sabha are women — the highest-ever proportion in the country’s Parliament.
Though the number of women legislators is relatively low, India has had a long line of female ministers, similar to New Zealand, who paved the way for future generations of women political leaders. Early Indian women ministers contributed significantly to society. Here are a few examples.
Prominent Women ministers from India
A photo taken at the reception held by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Health Minister, at Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 20, 1952, in honour of Dr Brock Chisholm, Director General of the World Health Organisation and Mrs Chisholm: (left to right) Dr Brock Chisholm, Mrs Kaur, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Mrs Chisholm. From the Hindu Archives
There were 24 women MPs in India’s first Lok Sabha, which was formed in 1952. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, elected from the Mandi-Mahasu constituency of Himachal Pradesh, became the first woman Cabinet minister of Health. She was instrumental in establishing the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and became its first President. Her other contributions include a campaign to eradicate malaria, which is estimated to have prevented four lakh deaths between the 1950s to the 1960s; leading the Indian delegation of the World Health Organization for four years; setting up the Tuberculosis Association; and being responsible for one of the largest B.C.G. vaccination programmes in the world.
Tarkeshwari Sinha, Union Deputy Minister of Finance, opening a Saving Bureau at the Regional National Savings Office at Mount Road, Madras on July 03, 1958. From the Hindu Archives
Tarkeshwari Sinha was elected to the first Lok Sabha from the Patna East constituency in Bihar, when she was just 26 years old. She became a politician after actively taking part in the Quit India Movement. When Sinha became the first female Deputy Finance Minister in Nehru’s cabinet from 1958 to 1964, she was already a three-time elected MP of the Lok Sabha. During her tenure as the Deputy Finance Minister, campaigns were conducted to popularise the small savings scheme, a priority for the Nehru government. The scheme still exists.
Tarkeshwari Sinha, Union Deputy Minister of Finance, is seen with a child and his mother, holding a hundi where the first collections were made during the inauguration of the Savings Bureau on July 03, 1958. Alongside is an article published in the Hindu newspaper on the Small Savings Campaign. From the Hindu Archive
Other prominent women leaders include Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Sushila Nayyar and Indira Gandhi. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first Indian woman to become a minister in pre-Independent India after she was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and assigned the Ministry of local self-government and public health in 1937. The sister of Jawaharlal Nehru was also an elected MP in the first Indian Lok Sabha.
Indian physician and Gandhian Sushila Nayyar was the first female Minister of State (Health) in Nehru’s Cabinet between 1962 and 1967.
Indira Gandhi was the only woman leader in India to become the Prime Minister. She was also the first woman Information and Broadcasting Minister. She also handled the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and External Affairs, among others, while being Prime Minister.
Activist and lawyer, Annie Mascarene was the first woman independent candidate to serve as a Member of Parliament. She won from the Travancore-Cochin constituency in Kerala in the 1951 Indian general election. She was one of the 15 women who were elected to the 299-member Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting the Constitution of India.
Finally, a list that discusses the contributions of women political leaders would be incomplete without Geeta Mukerjee. A seven-time MP elected from the Panskura constituency in West Bengal between 1980 and 2000, Mukerjee was known as the Architect of the Women’s Reservation Bill that proposed to provide 33% reservation for women in Parliament and the State Assemblies.
Women as representatives of the public
While the number of women legislators in Parliament continues to be low, it has improved significantly compared to the past. While the number of women has improved, how have performances inside Parliament been?
Sadia Hussain’s article, ‘Performance of Women in Parliament: A Quantitative Study of Questions by Women Members in Lok Sabha (1999-2019)’, published in the Economic and Political Weekly, explains how with more representation, women are becoming more vocal during Question Hour in Parliament, compared to the early days when they were portrayed by some as silent dolls or ‘gungi gudiyas’ (dumb dolls).
Data show that while men ask more questions and participate in more debates than women in general, on issues such as railways, defence, external affairs, health, women’s welfare, and agriculture, there has been an increase in women’s participation over the years.
In the 15th Lok Sabha, men MPs asked 281 questions on average compared to 218 questions by women MPs. But by the 16th Lok Sabha, the average number of questions asked by women went up to 262, while men asked 267. So, the gap is fast closing.
Fortnightly figures
- ₹15 lakh is the match fee that Indian women cricketers will earn from now for playing a Test match, the same as their male counterparts. They will earn ₹6 lakh per ODI and ₹3 lakh per T20I, the same as male cricketers. In a landmark decision, the BCCI announced equal match fees for its centrally contracted female and male players in an effort to ensure gender parity.
- 5,796 kilogram is the weight of the payload carried by LVM3-M2, the heaviest ever carried by an ISRO rocket. The record was created by the rocket on its maiden commercial mission when it placed 36 broadband communication satellites into the intended orbits. The rocket is capable of launching 4,000 kgs class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and 8,000 kg of payloads into Low Earth Orbit.
- ₹1.53 lakh crore is the worth of the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and agreements signed during the Defence Expo (DefExpo) 2022 at Gandhinagar, a senior official said. As many as 451 MoUs were signed in the 12th edition of DefExpo at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre. Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said that the event had broken previous records in terms of business generation.
- 80 basis points is the value by which State Bank of India (SBI) has increased its interest rate on tenures of 211 days to less than 1 year --- to 5.50% with effect from October 22, compared to the current 4.70%. The bank has also increased interest rates by 60 basis points to 5.25% on FDs maturing from 180 days to 210 days compared to the current 4.65%. A similar hike has been made on 2 years to less than 3 years tenures to 6.25% from the current 5.65%.
- ₹110 is the amount by which the government increased the minimum support price for wheat to Rs 2,125 per quintal on Tuesday. The MSP for mustard was raised by Rs. 400 to Rs 5,450 per quintal for the current crop year to boost the production and income of the farmers. MSP is the rate at which the government buys grain from farmers. Currently, the government fixes MSPs for 23 crops grown in both the Kharif and Rabi seasons.
Chart of the week
The chart shows the nationalities of 473 athletes caught doping or possessing prohibited substances and banned from sports events according to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics.
Indian discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, aged 26, was banned for three years with effect from March 29 after she tested positive for a prohibited substance earlier this year. With Kaur, 62 Indian athletes have been caught doping or in possession of banned substances. Only Russia has recorded more doping violations than India.
Read more about doping violations and ban on athletes here.
Flashback
On October 28, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) had given an impetus to the system to fight against terrorism. He added that the police should be equipped to face Maoists who wield a pen and mislead the youth, hampering the unity and integrity of the country. The Prime Minister’s statement comes at a time when the Supreme Court is examining a petition that challenged the validity of the law. A Data Point published in The Hindu on September 10, 2022 explained how laws including the UAPA, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Section 153A were used for purposes other than what they were intended for. All these laws had one commonality: poor convictions. Under the UAPA, 4,690 persons were arrested between 2018 and 2020, and only 3% were convicted.
According to data released by Food Corporation of India (FCI) on October 13, 2022, wheat stocks held by the FCI and State agencies dropped to 25 million tonnes at the beginning of October, the lowest in the last 14 years. Extreme weather that caused grains to shrivel up is cited as the reason for decreased production of the crop this year. This is in stark contrast to India’s position just six months ago. A story published by the Data team of the Hindu on April 2, 2022 showed how the Indian government had planned to increase the exports of wheat to cash in on the higher price of grain in the international market. With Russia and Ukraine — two countries that account for about 25% of the world’s wheat exports — in war, India had aimed to fill in the void.
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