Ever since the election of the 15th Lok Sabha, the spotlight has veered towards the issue of political representation of women. There has been self-congratulation over the largest-ever contingent of women in Lok Sabha and the election of the first woman Speaker. There has also been renewed chatter about quotas and caste sub quotas for women in the so-long-in-the-pipeline Women’s Bill.

In this context, a closer look at the list of newly elected women MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha may be useful in assessing the distance covered — and the road yet to be travelled.

Of the total number of women MPs — 58 — the balance is almost evenly poised between the upper castes and the more numerous backward castes (OBC, BC, SC, ST and backward castes among minorities). According to background checks by The Indian Express reporters, 28 of the 58 women MPs — that is nearly 48 per cent— belong to backward castes, 52 per cent are from upper castes. Clearly, the silent revolution that swept through some states since the late ’70s and led to the diminishing sway of upper castes and the rise of OBCs — also mirrored in the percentage of upper caste MPs dipping below the majority mark and continuing to decline — is not reflected in the list of women MPs.

Thirty women MPs— that is about 52 per cent of the total— are first-timers. But for at least 34 women MPs, that is nearly 59 per cent, the route to power runs through their families. That is, though many of them may now be politicians in their own right, their political career is not autonomous of their identity as wife, daughter, sister or daughter-in law of politicians, and at worst it is completely dependent on the family relationship.

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