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.

Among the major parties (Congress has 23 women MPs, BJP has 13, and the Trinamool and BSP follow with 4 MPs each), the representation — rather underrepresentation — of backward caste MPs is roughly equal in Congress and BJP. If the Congress has 48 per cent backward caste MPs, the BJP has 46 per cent.

But the Congress and BJP differ substantially on three counts. Unsurprisingly, the Congress does better in terms of minority representation — 3 out of 23 Congress women MPs are from the minority community while the BJP list does not have a single one from the minority community. But the BJP has many more first-timers — eight of its 13 MPs, about 61 per cent, are first timers. First timers constitute only 39 per cent of the Congress list.

The difference between the Congress and BJP is most pronounced in the number of women who come to Parliament via the political family. Four of the BJP’s 13 women MPs, that is nearly 31 per cent, fall in this category, while the figure vaults to 18 out of 23, nearly 78 per cent, in the Congress list.

The problem is most pronounced in a party like the BSP. All four of the women MPs in the BSP are first-timers, but all four belong to political families.