Context: 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.
Key Facts
The 17th Lok Sabha will see the highest representation of women ever - 78.  The representation of women as a percentage of total MPs has slowly increased from 5% in the first Lok Sabha to 14% now.

• Of the larger states Madhya Pradesh has the highest percentage of women MPs (21%), followed by West Bengal (17%) and Uttar Pradesh (15%).
• In India the legal age for marriage is 18 years for females and 21 years for males. However about 44 percent of females, and 37 percent of males are married before the legal age.
• There are areas in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar where the average female age at marriage continues to be below 16 years.
• According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 2014 women make up only 11.8 percent of the Indian Lok Sabha and 11.4 percent of Rajya Sabha
• Among its South Asian neighbors, India ranks fifth in women’s political representation in parliament falling behind Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.
• In 1952, women participation was as low as 5% of the entire house and now it stands at approxumately 11% even after 72 years into democracy which is abysmal. The NSSO data shows huge disparity between urban and rural population. About 64% of rural males and 45% rural females were literate. The literacy rates among their urban counterparts were much higher at 81% and 69% respectively.
• In 2020, the World Economic Forum listed India at 122 out of 153 countries when it comes to women's representation in parliament, in their Global Gender Gap Report.

Concerns Raised Against the Reservation

• Mandatory reservations will not address deeper imbalances of power: Inexperienced candidates will struggle to raise funds for their campaigns, defend the interest of their constituencies, and ultimately stand little chance of being re-elected.
• General quota would favour upper caste and class women: It would compete with claims of other minority groups and infringe on existing quotas for Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
• Lack of education and leadership training: A survey found that female panchayat heads to be less acquainted with the functioning of the Panchayati system than their male counterparts.
• Lacks social capital: Since women are not integrated in any local political process initially, and, unlike men, are not part of the relevant social and power networks, women leaders are prone to inefficiencies.

Other issues related to Women:

• Domestic Violence- Domestic violence often happens in India as a result of dowry demands.
• Dowry related harassment and deaths-  The dowry system is thought to put great financial burden on the bride’s family. but now in the modern India it has become a social menance.
• Sexual Harassment at work places 
• Migration

What other steps and measures taken?
Laws against women Harassment

• Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005.
• The payment of a dowry has been prohibited under The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 in Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act gives a female the right to file a complaint against any kind of sexual harassment at her place of work.
• Under the Legal Services Authorities Act, female rape victims have the right to get free legal aid or help from the Legal Services Authority who has to arrange a lawyer for her.

Constitutional Safeguards
The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women for neutralizing the cumulative socio economic, education and political disadvantages faced by them.

• Equality before law for women (Article 14)
• The State not to discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them (Article 15 )
• The State to make any special provision in favour of women and children (Article 15 (3))
• Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State (Article 16).
• The State to direct its policy towards securing for men and women equally the right to an adequate means of livelihood (Article 39(a)); and equal pay for equal work for both men and women (Article39(d))
• To promote justice, on a basis of equal opportunity and to provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or scheme or in any other way to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities (Article 39 A)
• The State to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief (Article 42)
• The State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46)
• The State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people (Article 47)
• To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e))
• Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Panchayat to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat (Article 243 D(3))
• Not less than one- third of the total number of offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats at each level to be reserved for women (Article 243 D (4))
• Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality (Article 243 T (3))
• Reservation of offices of Chairpersons in Municipalities for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women in such manner as the legislature of a State may by law provide (Article 243 T (4)).