Number of women MPs goes up in 15th Lok Sabha

For the first time, 58 make it to the Lower House

With 58 members from the fair sex the 15th Lok Sabha has 13 more women MPs than the last House. The Lower House not only has glitz and glamour with Jaya prada Nahata, Vijayasanthi and popular Bengali film actress Shatabdi Roy, it has seasoned politicians like Sushma Swaraj, Sumitra Mahajan and Shelja and greenhorns like Agatha Sangma.

Even chairperson of National Commission for Women Girija Vyas also fulfilled her dream of coming back to active politics by winning elections from Rajasthan. According to Election Commission figures, the nearest when women members could reach this 50 mark was in the 13th Lok Sabha in the 1999 elections, when 49 women candidates were elected. It was barely 9.02 percent of the total Lok Sabha seats.

The number of women elected to the Lok Sabha came down to 45 in 2004. It was the second highest in the house since its inception. It was only 8.29 percent of the total seats.
The lowest number of women elected to the Lok Sabha was in 1977 when only 19 women reached the lower house. It was only 3.5 percent of the total seats (542 at that time).
There was no other occasion in the history of Lok Sabha when the women did not even reach the mark of 20. There were only three other occasions when women candidates could touch the figure of 40 in the LS.

In the eighth Lok Sabha (1984) 42 women, in the 11th Lok Sabha (1996) 40 women and in the 12th Lok Sabha (1998) 43 women were elected.
“This also means that prior to 1996, there was only one occasion (in 1984) when women elected to the Lok Sabha could even touch the figure of 40,” the EC said.
DH News Service