There are few surprises in candidate selection for this Lok Sabha election. In Karnataka, dynastic politics remains prime and gender representation remains skewed. For the state’s 28 seats, the two main political parties have fielded 48 men and 8 women—six from the Congress and two from the BJP. For the 14 seats going to polls on April 26, the total number of candidates is 247; of these, only 21 or 8.5 percent are women.
This dismal figure is in keeping with the national average of 8 percent, according to Election Commission data for the first two phases. Kerala totted up 12 percent, Tamil Nadu 8 percent, as did Uttar Pradesh. This is happening when the gender ratio has improved to 997 females per 1,000 males and women voters have edged out men in turnout.
Regrettably, there are few women today who have made it big in the political world by the sheer dint of hard work. Most of the women in the fray today are daughters, wives, sisters or daughters-in-law of party leaders, anointed to continue the family business, tutored and dictated to by male family members. Politics continues to be a patriarchal arena and a daunting career space for politically ambitious women.
Those who are ready for the field’s rough and tumble have to counter crass comments from their male counterparts. This election’s series of unsavoury remarks—from women deemed fit only for the kitchen, and certain candidates needing an extra peg, to some being led astray—only reveals that the male mindset is yet to accept the challenge women pose.
The 16th Lok Sabha had 61 women members out of 545 and the 17th had 78; it remains to be seen if the 18th Lok Sabha will improve the score. The Women’s Reservation Act 2023, which sets aside 33 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha, assembly and local bodies for women, remains a chimera until the delimitation process is carried out a few years hence.
The parties have recognised the importance of woman voters, whose improving turnouts have changed a political calculation or two. They are ready with a bouquet of targeted schemes to garner women’s votes, but are yet to reconcile with the fact that women need to be part of the polity too. Party leaders should start looking ahead and groom women leaders for more equitable legislatures.