HYDERABAD: In the tapestry of Telangana’s Assembly elections, irony takes centre stage, with an increased number of women voters but fewer women candidates contesting and even fewer finally making it to the legislative body.Of the 2,290 candidates in the fray, only 221 were women, and one was transgender.Despite this, only nine women candidates have emerged as winners in the 119-seat state assembly, despite the fact that there were 1.63 crore women voters, outnumbering male voters for the first time.
Speaking during campaigning in Station Ghanpur in support of Congress candidate Singapuram Indira, TPCC chief Revanth Reddy had said there would be a fair representation for women, not less than four in the cabinet. With five women from the Congress winning in the election, it would be interesting to see how many of them will become ministers and what porfolios they would be asked to handle.
The significance of women’s representation in the legislative Assembly becomes more relevant with the recent passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which mandates 33 percent reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislatures. Though the Act has not yet come into force, its spirit was lacking in the election. Among prominent parties, Bharat Rashtra Samithi had given tickets to only eight women, Congress to 10, and BJP to 13. In total, 86 women contested as independent candidates, while others were from various parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party, Dharma Samaj Party, and Marxist Communist Party, among others.
Compared to the last two elections, the representation of women was better this time but still fell short of the ideal mark. In the 2014 State Assembly election, of a total of 1,612 candidates who filed nominations, only 127 were women, and of them nine had won. However, not a single woman held a ministerial position in the cabinet. In 2018, there were two women ministers, Sabitha Indra Reddy for Education and Satyavati Rathod for Tribal Welfare, Women and Child Welfare. Despite this improvement, there were only six women in the Assembly of the total 1782 nominations filed that year, with 136 being women candidates.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr A L Sharada, a gender activist based in Hyderabad highlighted that the issues of underrepresentation of women is not confined to State election politics as it is prevalent in all spheres, including educational institutions and corporations.
She added that it was not a matter of capability as women are fully capable of taking up responsibilities in politics. However, the prevailing environment is not conducive to their active participation. “Women who are in politics contest either because there is a reserved seat, or because they are daughters or wives of someone already in politics,” Dr Sharada said.
But many women engaged in grassroots work for the betterment of society struggle to secure political opportunities. The family environment further complicates matters, as women are often expected to balance political responsibilities with household duties. Even in panchayat elections where 33 percent seats are reserved for women, many candidates are wives led by their husbands, perpetuating gender inequalities.
“Even when women succeed in elections, they are often assigned softer portfolios like women and child development, while powerful ministries like finance remain elusive. The power dynamics continue to favour male politicians, and the road to achieving gender parity, if not 50 percent, at least 33 percent representation, is long,” said Dr Sharada. Despite the absence of discrimination in principle, the gender gap persists in practice.