: If gender parity is the destination, the journey has not even started if one were to go by the number of women candidates nominated by political parties, an analysis of Prajnya, an organisation that works for gender equality, shows.
The Prajnya study shows that the MDMK has the highest number of women candidates at 13.8 per cent, with 4 women among its total of 29 candidates. The AIADMK follows at 13.7 per cent, with 31 women in the fray out of its tally of 227. The CPI (M) is at 12 per cent and the DMK is at 11 per cent. All other parties have fewer than 10 per cent women candidates. Of the 12 parties analysed, there were 323 women candidates from a total of 3,785, amounting to 8.5 per cent. Additionally, there are two transgender candidates, the analysis said.
The checklist
The analysis is part of Prajnya’s Gender Equality Election Checklist. A note from the organisation says that “in the absence of party-generated data that is up-to-date, comprehensive and gender-disaggregated”, its commentary is based on media accounts. The note also says that looking at the manifestos released, there is no strong evidence of a concern about gender issues. “Parties say it is hard to find women candidates,” said Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya. “But there are women party members. The question is: do women do work that is not considered important or is it because women do the work that it is not considered important,” she asked.
