The Big Picture : Women in Legislatures

A very Happy Women’s Day to all of you. May we soon become a gender equal, gender neutral society. And as we strive towards achieving this, it’s important to acknowledge the multiple roles that women play – the struggles that they take on everyday and yet, excel in everything they do. For the multi-faceted woman, everyday is Women’s Day, But this one day of the year March 8th gives us the right opportunity to celebrate the versatility of women, their important role in shaping families, societies and the nation. On this edition of The Big Picture, we will talk about the role of women in one vital aspect of nation building and that is politics. We’ll analyse the journey that women in India have traversed through in politics, their position in legislatures today and what more needs to be done to widen their participation. In India we have seen that with every election, more women MPs are occupying the center stage. The 17th Lok Sabha has 78 women (about 14 percent) of the total seats. In 1952, there was one woman MP for about eight million Indian women. Over the decades we’ve indeed come a long way. How would you look back at the journey of Indian women in electoral politics over the decades. 78 women MPs are elected to the parliament out of the 700-plus female candidates who contested the 2019 general elections. The representation of women in the Upper House has also increased. There are a little over 10% women MPs in Rajya Sabha as on date. How has the participation of women MPs increased in the House of Elders?. A little over 10% women MPs in Rajya Sabha. 78 women in Lok Sabha in 17th Lok Sabha – a new record, Paucity of women’s voices in the Upper House. Both Houses have more than 100 women – for the first time in independent India. Guest Name:- Aparajita Sarangi, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, BJP Vandana Chavan, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, NCP Anchor:- Teena Jha Producer:- Sagheer Ahmad