INDIA: A Step Forward - But Women in India Still Underrepresented in Politics

Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalithaa Jayaraman and Mamata Bannerjee will be some of the most influential women in India after the elections. But women are still underrepresented and the criminalization of politics in the country is highlighted as a deterrent to women's participation.

The ruling Congress Party won a dramatic victory on Saturday 16 May in India's month-long elections. A majority of voters endorsed a second term for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The 715 million voters took to the polls in five stages between 16 April and 13 May.

The Women's Reservation Bill proposes that 33 percent of the seats in parliament are to be reserved for women. This level was not reached, but the new Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament, which consists of 552 members) has the highest number of women Members of Parliament (MP) ever. With 58 women elected, the Lok Sabha has 13 more women MPs than the last House and nine more than the previous best score of 49. The representation of women has crossed the 10 percent mark for the first time in Indian history, according to the Times of India.

For this election, parties had pledged again to reserve 33 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha and in the state assemblies for women. A measure of poor progress in women´s participation is the fact that 44 women were elected to parliament in the last general elections held in 2004 - the exact same number as in the 1984 elections. Of the 6,538 candidates in the first four stages of the elections, only 462 were women, the news agency Inter Press Service reported.

One of the impediments to the entry of women into Indian politics is the criminalization of politics in the country. Crime and corruption were in fact cited as bigger deterrents than patriarchal attitudes or any other factor, according to Madhu Kishwar, founder of Manushi Sangathan, an organisation that works for women's rights.

To contest for a parliamentary seat, the candidate needs to raise an average of US$2 million dollars, and the taxation system makes it nearly impossible to fund a candidate or a party legitimately.

“To win the elections, there is a need for both money and muscle - areas that are often linked to criminality,” said Ranjana Kumari, president of Women Power Connect, an umbrella for some 700 women's organisations and individuals to IPS.

''Politics is dirty, and, if you are a woman, you may need the support of male family members, a father, brother or a husband to act as a buffer against the payoffs, the land-grabbing, extortion and underhand dealings,'' said Kishwar.