Lok Sabha Election 2024: Women count fails to show improvement

The lower house of India’s Parliament did not see any notable uptick in the representation of women after the latest elections, with a total of 74 women getting elected across the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, down from 78 elected in 2019.

A total of 797 women candidates contested the election this year.

The participation of women in India's Lok Sabha elections has seen a positive shift over the years, both in terms of the number of candidates contesting and the increasing engagement of female voters.

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The overall strike rate of women candidates this year was around 9.3%, as against 11.7% in the 2019 elections, when 726 women contested and only 78 of them got elected as Members of Parliament (MPs).

Over the years, the number of women candidates has increased but the corresponding rise in the number of winners has been modest. In 1962, 74 women contested, with 36 winning, resulting in a high strike rate of 48.6%. The following decades saw more women candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections, but their strike rate often declined.

Strike rate refers to the number of seats won per 100 seats contested.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) account for the biggest number of new women MPs.

The number of women winners in major states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are all seeing a fall as compared to 2019, as per the latest trends. Meanwhile, in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, the number of women winners are seeing a marginal uptick. 

Among the women candidates who won across the 543 constituencies, 32 belong to the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), followed by 12 from Indian National Congress (INC) and 11 from All India Trinamool Congress. Kriti Devi Debbarman (BJP) won with a vote share of over 68% from Tripura East constituency in Tripura, followed by Dr. Lata Wankhede (BJP) with a vote share of 68.51% from Sagar constituency in Madhya Pradesh. 

Kriti Devi Debbarman also had the highest victory margin among women winners.

Globally, India’s ranking for women’s representation in the lower house of the Parliament has dropped to 143 out of 185 countries as of 1 June, according to the latest data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Parline database, behind countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan and China.

As of April 2024, there were 77 women lawmakers in India, making up 14.7% of the total seats. Last year, the Indian Parliament passed a law to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha for women, but the law has not yet come into effect.

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