Participation and Performance of Women Candidates in the General Elections of India: An Analytical Study (1951-2009)

Pandita, Ramesh

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.28.128

ILSHS > Volume 28 > Participation and Performance of Women Candidates...

< Back to Volume

Participation and Performance of Women Candidates in the General Elections of India: An Analytical Study (1951-2009)

Full Text PDF

Abstract:

Participation of women in the electoral process of India as contestants has been very abysmal since the inception of the electoral process of the country. Present study has been conceived in view of the demands raised by various political parties and different women organizations about introducing and passing of women’s reservation bill in the parliament so as to secure at least 33 % seats for women candidates across the country. In the present study attempt has been made to see how far women candidates have been given representation by national and state level political parties during all the general elections held in India since independence. The other areas covered in the study include the distribution of political parties during all the general elections held, female candidate fielded by parties in proportion to male candidates, their success rate, votes secured, forfeited deposits etc. the study is purely based on secondary data, retrieved from the official website of the Election Commission of India on October 21, 2013. The multiparty system in India has somewhere become the areas of concern, which in fact has heralded an era of coalition politics in country, where the number has grown exponentially and as of now more than 2000 political parties stand registered with the Election commission of India. On average mere 6.90 % women candidates have been chosen to parliament during each general election, while as on average 4.49 % women contestants have been fielded in each general election. Scenario of state political parties is more worrisome and in case of independent contestants the situation is quite displeasing.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 28)

Pages:

128-149

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.28.128

Citation:

R. Pandita, "Participation and Performance of Women Candidates in the General Elections of India: An Analytical Study (1951-2009)", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 28, pp. 128-149, 2014

Online since:

May 2014

Authors:

Ramesh Pandita

Keywords:

Electoral Process, General Elections, India, Multi Party System, Voter Turnout, Women Contestants, Women Participation

Export:

RIS, BibTeX, Text

Distribution:

Open Access

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

United Nations entity for Gender Equality and the empowerment of women. Retrieved October 27, 2013 from: http: /www. un. org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw.

Geraldine Forbes (1979). Votes for Women: The demand for Women's franchise in India, in Vina Mazumdar (Ed), Symbols of Power: Studies on the Political Status of Women in India, Bombay.

Ministry of Home affaris, Govt of India. available at: http: /www. censusindia. gov. in/Census_And_You/index. aspx.

Geo-Hack-India. (n. d). Retrieved July 13, 2013 from: http: /tools. wmflabs. org/geohack/geohack. php?pagename=India&params=28_36. 8_N_7 7_12. 5_E_type: country.

Indian Parliament. (n. d). Accessed on August 2, 2013. Available at: http: /www. parliamentofindia. nic. in.

Election Commissioner of India. (n. d). Retrieved July 13, 2013 from: http: /eci. gov. in/eci_main1/index. aspx.

Ibid.

Fox Richard L., et al., Gendered Perceptions and Political Candidacies: A Central Barrier to Women's Equality in Electoral Politics. American Journal of Political Science 55 (1) 2011) 59-73.

United Nations Development Programme (2002). Human Development Report 2002, New York: Oxford University Press.

Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance. (2005).

Phillips A. (ed) (1998). Feminism and Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carroll S. J. (ed. ) (2001). The Impact of Women in Public Office, Indiana: University of Indiana Press.

Pitkin H. (1967). The Concept of Representation, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Inglehart R., Norris P. (2003). Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Bergqvist C., Borchorst A., Christensen A., Ramstedt-Silén V., Raaum N. C., Styrkársdóttir A. (eds. ) (1999) Equal Democracies? Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries, Olso: Scandinavian University Press.

Mhatre Minal (2009). Women in Electoral Politics: A Case Study of Women's Political Participation in Maharashtra.

Reynolds A., Reserved seats in national legislatures, Legislative Studies Quarterly 30(2) 2005) 301-310.

Tinker I., Quotas for women in elected legislatures: do they really empower women? Womens Studies International Forum 27(5-6) 2004) 531-546. ( Received 11 May 2014; accepted 18 May 2014 ).

Show More Hide

Cited By:

This article has no citations.