In the midst of talks women reservation in legislative bodies, mere 25 women have been given the tickets to contest in the upcoming Delhi assembly election by AAP, BJP & Congress party. These include Chief Minister Atishi Marlena, Women Congress Chief Alka Lamba,BJP's Shika Rai who will be contesting against AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj and other leaders.

Insignificant representation

Delhi assembly's total seats are 70 and if 33 % reservation is made mandatory it roughly comes to 23. Now the total number of candidates itself is 25 so one can fathom how much women representation would be there in the new assembly.

This is however not the first time, in 2020, 24 women were in the fray while in 2015, there were 19 women candidates. This is in the place which saw Sushma Swaraj & Sheila Dixit as the Chief Minister while the present CM is also a woman.

Women centric cash handouts

Parties have taken a leaf out of the book of MP where Ladli behanas made it possible for the BJP to return to power despite having anti-incumbency. A trend started with other states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand etc. implementing such schemes to attract women voters. In Delhi too, all the three major parties have offered women centric cash handout schemes claiming that it will empower women. However real empowerment in democracy comes from active participation and by giving more tickets, parties could have empowered them politically.

Lok Sabha polls gave a bright picture

The Lok sabha polls conducted in 2024 gave a bright picture as more women paricipated as candidates in this election. This parliamentary election saw 800 women candidates contesting across 390 parliamentary constituencies, the higher-ever since the second general elections in 1957. In 2019 parliamentary elections, 726 female candidates contested the election.

Despite claims of progress, the fact that only 25 women candidates are contesting across all major political parties in a city with 70 seats reflects the limited scope of female participation in legislative bodies. While women-centric welfare schemes have become popular tools for garnering votes, true empowerment in a democracy is rooted in active political engagement.