Central Ministries Employ Just 11% Women: Ministry of Women and Child Development

On March 17, Dilip Saikia (BJP) asked the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development about the representation of women in executive, legislature as well as the Administration.

Smriti Irani, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development responded that Lok Sabha had 82 female members while 724 had contested the General Elections in 2019. She said that there 15.12% female MPs in Lok Sabha which is higher than the 2014 elections where only 68 women were in Lok Sabha. Further, there are 33 female MPs in Rajya Sabha as on March 16, which means 13.6% women comprise Rajya Sabha. Reservation for women in the legislature, at 33%, has been a long standing demand of political parties, but the Bill has never been passed in the Houses, albeit, introduced several times. It was first introduced when Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister under the United Front government and after that in 1988, 1999 as well as 2008. The last time, it lapsed in the Lok Sabha in 2014.

The Minister further provided that there are 11 female Ministers amongst the Council of Ministers. Further, as per the Census of Central Government employees brought out by Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment, in 2011 had indicated the total number of employees in various Central Ministries/ Department as 30,87,278 out of which 3,37,439 employees were women. This meant that 10.9% Central Ministerial employees are women.

The Ministry was unable to provide information of the number of females employed  in the State Police, that being the state subject. However, it provided that more than 20 states have reservations for women during recruitment, in varying percentages. India Justice Report, released in July last year, had stated that women constitute only 10.5% of the entire police force in the country, across states and UTs. Similar data point was presented before the Lok Sabha during last year’s budget sessions, where minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, relying upon data from Bureau of Police Research and Development had stated that women police personnel constitute 10.3% of the police force all across India, with Bihar (25.3%) having the highest number of women personnel, followed by Himachal Pradesh (19.15%) and then Chandigarh (18.78%).

Referring to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) which comes under Article 243D of The Constitution, the Article provides for at least 1/3rd reservation of seats for women. However, there are 21 states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal which have 50% reservation for women. As per real time data, throughout the country, PRI consists of more than 46% women.

The complete answer may be read here: