Only 10% Women Candidates in 2024 Lok Sabha Polls. Women Reservation Act Under Question
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Itanagar
- May 23, 2024
- 136
It's strange but fact that not even 10 percent of the total candidates for the Lok Sabha polls 2024 are women.
Such sensational information has emerged in a survey of the Association of Democratic Rights (ADR).
About 8,500 candidates are contesting this year's Lok Sabha election.
Among them, the number of women is less than eight hundred.
This is the first Lok Sabha vote after passing of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament.
The proposed law was stalled for 27 years. The Act proposes to reserve one-third seats for women in all central and state legislatures.
Indian parliament passed the bill that guarantees 33% seats for women in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the national parliament) and state legislatures.
However, this law has not yet been implemented. According to the ADR survey, the number of women among the candidates who filed nominations in all five phases of the elections is alarmingly low.
Out of 1200 to 1500 candidates in all phases, the number of female candidates is less than 150 in each phase.
Several reviewers and social workers have expressed their concern over this gender discrimination.
According to them, without waiting for the implementation of the Women's Reservation Act, the political parties should now increase the proportion of women in the number of candidates under the Act.
Aligarh Muslim University professor Iftekar Ahmed Ansari said, "The proportion of women in the number of voters is almost half. But such a disparity in the number of candidates raises some important questions about the multiple social barriers to women's political participation."