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The 2023 Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which mandates one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies, has been passed but awaits implementation
There are 75 women in Lok Sabha and 42 in Rajya Sabha – roughly around 15%. (PTI)
Women make up only 10 per cent of ministers across Union, state and UT cabinets and their share among MLAs is no better, data has revealed. In terms of MPs in Parliament, the situation is a little better but far from the 33 per cent reservation promised by parties.
The 2023 Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which mandates one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies, has been passed but awaits implementation. The aim of the new law was to “institutionalise representation of women in politics at the highest levels of public decision-making”.
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Reports by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) reveal the imbalance is uniform across levels of governance. Analysis of these reports by News18 shows the situation is the same across the states with only a few exceptions, even in elections held after 2023, when parties across the political spectrum highlighted the need for better women representation.
One of the reports said there are 643 ministers across 27 state assemblies, three Union Territories and the Union Council, excluding the Manipur cabinet. Out of 643 ministers, only 63 (10 per cent) ministers are women while 580 were men.
“Highest number of women ministers in assemblies are from West Bengal eight (20 per cent) followed by Madhya Pradesh with five (16 per cent), Uttar Pradesh with five (9 per cent) and Maharashtra four (10 per cent),” the report said.
In the Union Council, only seven (10 per cent) are women out of 72 ministers.
In at least four cabinets, there are no women ministers—Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Sikkim assemblies. Sikkim and Goa have 12 ministers in total each while Puducherry has six and Himachal has 11. Delhi and J&K cabinets have only one female minister.
Not just cabinets but when it comes to the head of a state, India has just two women chief ministers out of 30—West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Delhi’s Rekha Gupta.
The picture is equally bleak in state assemblies. In March 2025, another report from ADR showed that there were 4,092 MLAs across assemblies in India, including Manipur, and only 400 were women against 3,692 men. This excluded 31 seats, including the vacant ones.
Chhattisgarh was the only state where women MLAs were over 20 per cent of the total strength – 19 out of 90.
In terms of total number, the highest tally of women MLAs is from Uttar Pradesh 51(13 per cent) followed by West Bengal with 44(15 per cent) and Bihar 29 (12 per cent) out of 241 elected MLAs.
Delhi, a house of 70 members, elected only five women in the elections held earlier this year. For 33 per cent reservation in Delhi, at least 23 women have to be elected to the House in one term. On the contrary, since 2008, 25 women have been elected to the House collectively in the five assembly elections.
Jammu and Kashmir, which also elected the assembly in 2024, saw only three women entering the House against 40 in the fray. Since 1996, just 12 women MLAs made it to the J&K assembly.
Puducherry (one) and Nagaland (two) were the houses with lowest women MLAs across India. At three women each, Sikkim, Goa, Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh joined the position with J&K.
Parliament
Parliament offers only a marginally better picture. There are 75 women in Lok Sabha and 42 in Rajya Sabha—around 15 per cent roughly. That leaves men overwhelmingly dominant — 467 in Lok Sabha and 197 in Rajya Sabha.
West Bengal has the maximum number of women MPs at 11 in Lok Sabha, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra at seven each and Madhya Pradesh with six female MPs.
Women’s representation in the Lok Sabha had crawled from less than 5 per cent in the first House in 1951 to only about 15 per cent in 2019. This means reaching the 33 per cent benchmark could take another five decades.
In 2024, one in every four constituencies had no woman candidate, and 14 states and UTs ended up electing no woman MP at all, despite political parties repeatedly promising more tickets to women.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, on an average, every woman candidate had to battle 10 male candidates. The statistics hold true for all major national parties in the fray.
As India’s political landscape remains stubbornly male-dominated, these numbers make the need for reservation for women all the more important.
With Bihar polls ahead, parties face a test: Will the 33 per cent pledge translate into tickets for women, or remain mere lip service?
About the Author
Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived…Read More
Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived… Read More
September 06, 2025, 11:42 IST
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