RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Assembly has the highest percentage of women MLAs in the country, with the bye-elections having further increased their representation in the House. In the five Assembly bypolls held in Chhattisgarh after the Congress came to power four years ago, the voters sent three more women legislators to the 90-member House, taking their figure up from 13 in 2018 elections to 16, making 17.7% of the total lawmakers in the state.
According to the latest data presented by Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju in Lok Sabha, there are 19 state Assemblies having less than 10% women legislators, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
In the recently-held Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh, only one woman emerged winner while in Gujarat 8.2% of the elected lawmakers are women. The overall average count of women MLAs in Assemblies across the nation makes for around 8%.
“The representation of women remains low. Political parties need to give serious thought to arrive at a consensus on the issue,” political analyst Uchit Sharma said. “Enough delay has already happened to pass the women’s reservation bill, which was introduced in Parliament in 1996, to politically empower women by reserving one-third seats in state Assemblies and Lok Sabha,” he added.