United Nations: India ranks 148 among 193 UN members in the number of women parliamentarians.
This was revealed in a ranking list released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women on March 15.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of UN Women, who released the ranking, has called for reservations for women.
In India, women form only 11.8 percent of the members in the Lok Sabha and 11 percent of the Rajya Sabha, the two houses of parliament.
Among the number of women ministers, India ranks 88, with 18.5 percent in the cabinet, twocircles.net reported.
However, women hold important positions in India: Sumitra Mahajan is the speaker and Sushma Swaraj is the External Affairs Minister.
Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong supported the call for reservations for women. Quotas for women could speed up the process for achieving gender equality, he added.
At the current rate of progress, it would take 50 years for the number of women to equal that of men in legislative bodies, he said.
The percentage of women in parliaments worldwide barely ticked up from 22.6 percent in 2015 to 23.3 percent in 2016. India’s percentage is about half the world tally.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, texecutive director of UN Women, the international organization’s arm for empowering women, said that the most progress in increasing their ranks in parliament was achieved in countries with quotas.
A constitutional amendment bill to reserve 33 percent of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women was first proposed in 1996 but has failed in the last 20 years to make headway.
In the latest attempt, it passed the Rajya Sabha in 2010 but lapsed when the last Lok Sabha ended its term in 2014 without taking it up.
Chungong said a positive development was a move away from shunting women to “soft” ministries like women’s affairs and instead placing them in important ministries.
In addition to Swaraj, who has the important External Affairs portfolio, Uma Bharti is the Water Resources Minister and Nirmala Sitharaman has independent charge of Commerce and Industry.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said that women politicians were held back by a number of problems, including the lack of finance for campaigns and stereotyping.
They also faced bullying online and physically, harassment and hostile treatment by the media, she added.
Rwanda ranked first in the number of women parliamentarians with 61.3 percent in the lower house, followed by Bolivia with 53.1 percent and Cuba 48.9 percent.
In South Asia, Nepal ranked 48 with 29.6 percent; Pakistan ranked 89 with 20.6 percent (but with no ministers); Bangladesh 91 with 20.3 percent, and Sri Lanka lagged at 179th place with 5.8 percent.
Bulgaria, France and Nicaragua tied for the first rank for the number of women ministers with 52.9 percent each.