United We Fall — Into the Trap of Manipulators
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-26, Jan-Feb 1985)
The new Lok Sabha has 42 women members out of a total of 502. Thus, women constitute about eight per cent of the current total strength. This is an all time high, though not very substantially different from previous Lok Sabhas. The 1980 Lok Sabha had 28 women members out of 542, that is, about five percent of the total strength.
A total of 157 women contested the recent elections. This is also an all time high figure. However, there seems to be little cause for jubilation if, instead of counting the number of successful candidates, we look at the role that women played during the election…