On International Women's Day, 50:50 in decision making

6 March, 2009 by admin

Ask for 50:50 in decision making as we head for General Elections in India

We are heading for general elections in India – a celebration of democracy. A key issue is will women have adequate representaion? What will be the percentage of women in the running? Will political parties take steps to make sure more women are given tickets to contest?

1999 - 8.8% parliamentarians were women

2005 - Less than 10% of the directly elected national representatives are women – 45 members out of 542 in the Lok Sabha. Even in the Rajya Sabha, where members are appointed and therefore can be more easily represent a wider spectrum of India, only 28 of 242 seats are held by women.

How do we incarese representaion for women in parliament? Do we reserve seats?

http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/sep/opi-reserve.htm

Is it in any one’s interest to pass the bill to reserve seats in the Parliament for women? Is there a political will?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1809174,00.html

A report, “Sex-disaggregated statistics on the participation of women and men in political and public decision making in the Council of Europe member states”, depicts the situation as of 1 September 2008.

Highlights

Only three member states have reached the recommended minimum of 40% of women in their national parliament: Sweden (46%), Finland (41.5%) and the Netherlands (41.3%). Belgium (37.3%), Denmark (38%) and Norway (37.9%) are close to reaching the required minimum.

Finland and Spain exceed 50% participation of women in the composition of their national governments. Two women have been elected Heads of State – in Finland and Ireland -, and another two Heads of Government – in Germany and Ukraine -. In five countries there are no women ministers.

Only 10.2 % of the mayors are women, Russia being the country with a highest proportion of women in this post (29.5%). 24% of municipal councillors are women. 27.6 % of the judges in Supreme Courts and 20.3% of the judges in constitutional courts are women.

India is the world’s largest democarcy with the largest electorate with just about 10% women in Parliament. Something to think about…

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