Lok Sabha elections 2024 | Number of women candidates grew 16-fold from 1957 to 2019: ECI data

Women made up only 9% of Lok Sabha candidates in 2019; number of women candidates has never crossed 1,000; parties give fewer opportunities, harder seats to women, says Centre for Social Research director

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi addresses during an election campaign in support of CPM candidate from Madurai constituency, Su Venkatesan ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, in Madurai. File.

In 1957, there were just 45 women candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election; by 2019, this figure had risen to 726, Election Commission data shows, even as the percentage of women in Parliament has increased from 4.5% in 1957 to 14.4% in 2019. The number of male candidates, on the other hand, has grown from 1,474 in 1957 to 7,322 in 2019.

This means that the number of men contesting has multiplied by five times; for women, the growth has been 16-fold. In 1957, a mere 2.9% of candidates were women; in 2019, they make up around 9% of the total pool of candidates. However, the number of women candidates has never yet crossed 1,000.

Gender-wise data is not available for the first general election in 1952.

More women in the fray

A perusal of the ECI data shows that in the second general election in 1957, out of the 45 women candidates in the fray, 22 won, indicating a 48.88% success rate. That has declined consistently ever since; in 2019, women’s success rate was just 10.74%, as only 78 of the 726 women candidates won their seats.

In the case of male candidates, their winning percentage dropped from 31.7% in 1957 to just 6.4% in 2019.

This is not, however, a marker for any trends in the winnability of men and women; it simply reflects the fact that the number of candidates of both sexes has grown even as the number of seats in the Lok Sabha remained the same, experts note.

“This just shows the maturing of the Indian democracy and the fact that more and more women are entering the fray,” says political analyst Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of the NGO Political Shakti.

‘Lack of political will’

On the huge gap between the numbers of women and men candidates, experts say that women have much fewer opportunities to contest.

“The winnability of women is higher, but there is a lack of will among political parties to give them opportunities to contest,” says Ranjana Kumari, women’s rights activist and the director of the Centre for Social Research. Even when they do, Ms. Kumari says, “Political parties generally give more difficult seats to women. They may be put up against strong candidates or those who can be categorised as having more muscle and money power.” There is thus no level playing field, she says.