Low representation of women in UP underlines importance of present reservation bill

Lucknow: Even as the central government on Thursday convened a three-day special sitting of Parliament to consider an amendment for implementing the women’s reservation bill — provisioning 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies from the 2029 general elections — the current representation of women from Uttar Pradesh in elected bodies not only presents a contrasting picture, but also underlines the importance of the coming law.A closer look at the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad reveals that women remain significantly under-represented in the case of UP.In Lok Sabha, women MPs from UP occupy only seven of the state’s 80 seats, accounting for a mere 9% of the total. Of these, the Samajwadi Party has the highest number with five women MPs out of its 37-member contingent, or 13.5%.The BJP, which has 33 Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, is represented by only one woman MP — Hema Malini from Mathura. BJP ally Apna Dal (S) also has one woman MP from the state, party president and Union minister Anupriya Patel.In 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP and its ally RLD fielded six women candidates each. The Samajwadi Party and its ally Congress fielded 12 and one women candidates, respectively. The Mayawati led BSP fielded three women.In 2022 assembly elections, a total of 559 women candidates were fielded by all parties which was 13% of the total 4402 candidates in the fray. Of this, Congress fielded the maximum of 154, followed by BJP (45) and SP (42). The BSP fielded 38 women candidates.The picture is relatively better in the Rajya Sabha, though still below parity. Of Uttar Pradesh’s 31 members in the Upper House, only seven are women, making up 22.5% of the total strength.The BJP accounts for six of these seven women MPs from the state, while the Samajwadi Party, which has four Rajya Sabha members, is represented by actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan alone.In the case of the UP assembly, women legislators account for only 51 out of 403 seats or 12.6% of the total strength. The BJP has the highest number with 30 women MLAs among its 257 legislators, translating into 11.6%.Samajwadi Party has 15 women MLAs, in its contingent of 102 legislators in the UP assembly (14.7%).BJP ally Apna Dal (S) has four women legislators among its 13 MLAs, or 30.7%. Similarly, the Rashtriya Lok Dal has only one woman MLA, Mithlesh Pal, among its nine members, translating into around 11%.The Congress, which has two MLAs in the Assembly, has one woman legislator — Aradhana Mishra Mona.The situation is even more skewed in the Vidhan Parishad. Of the current strength of 99 MLCs, only four are women. Three of them — Pragya Tripathi (Bahraich), Vandana Verma (Saharanpur) and Rama Niranjan (Jhansi) — belong to the BJP, which has 79 members in the Upper House.The fourth woman MLC, Annapurna Singh, is an Independent from Azamgarh.None of the BJP allies — SBSP, Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party and RLD — has a single woman representative in the Vidhan Parishad. The Samajwadi Party, which has 10 MLCs, also does not have any woman member in the House.