Looking at the composition of the 14th Lok Sabha where the number of women has gone down by five to 44, women empowerment does not quite seem to be well on the track.
In the 13th Lok Sabha, there were 49 women parliamentarians. In this edition, out of 539 elected MPs, only 44 are women.
What is even more distressing is the fact that despite promises by political parties for a law reserving 33 per cent seats in the legislature for women, the number of women contestants in the Lok Sabha polls declined sharply.
While there were 247 women contestants for the 13th Lok Sabha election, the number went down to 177 in 2004 polls.
Senior Congress leader Prabha Rao said, "With all the talk of 33 per cent reservation of seats for women, I was expecting that this time there will be a greater number of women candidates. But unfortunately, the opposite happened."
Rao, who lost from Wardha parliamentary constituency, says it has become imperative that there is either 33 per cent reservation for women in the legislature or it is made legally binding on parties to field a minimum number of women.
"When it comes to the women's reservation bill, cutting across party lines our 'bhai log' (men) raise objections to it and manage to stall it every time," she adds.
In the election for the 14th Lok Sabha, while Congress fielded 45 women among 417 candidates, BJP was a distant second, with 30 women contestants out of a total of 364.
Commenting on the sluggish rate of increase in the number of women in Lok Sabha, National Commission for Women Chairperson Poornima Advani says, "Unless there is a dagger of legislation hanging on the heads of political parties, we cannot see an increase in the number of women MPs."
The number of women elected to Lok Sabha in 1952 was 22, with the house having a total strength of 489. The number increased to 34 in the third Lok Sabha election. But the jump in figures was short-lived, with the numbers decreasing in the next three elections.
What is notable is that women have a better success rate than men in the Lok Sabha election, and many have risen to top positions in the political arena.
While Congress, leading the present coalition government, is headed by a woman -- Sonia Gandhi, there are five states having women as the chief ministers.
"Not that women don't have much of a role in party affairs. In fact, women make an equal contribution in building up the party," says Advani. "But when it comes to power positions, women are all of a sudden not wanted and are sidelined," she adds.
The NCW has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to ensure that women's issues, including the women's reservation bill, which has been pending for many years now, were high on the agenda of the new government.
