The 17^th Lok Sabha will be commencing its journey with quite a few number of records in terms of electoral participation, number of contesting candidates, usage of EVMs, deployment of polling personnel etc. All these no doubt, will be counted as signs of a robust and progressive democracy. But the fact that it will be having the highest number of women so far in  electoral history of the nation in the law making process will stand apart from the rest as a fine example of furthering women empowerment.

Out of 542 MPs who will take oath as members of the  lower house, 78 will be women, making the percentage as 14.39, the best so far and an increase from 2014’s 12.5% when their total number was 65. BJP has sent the largest number of elected women representatives to this Lok Sabha which is 40, followed by Trinamool Congress 9, Congress 6, BJD 5 and YSRCP 4. And more interestingly, it seemed that women contestants had also displayed an enviable knack of winning if measured in percentage figures. Winnability factor or strike rate of women contestants is highest for BJP with 75.47%, followed by BJD with 71.42% and TMC with 39.13%.

The issue of greater women participation in law making process in the country and demands for the same have been going on since several decades. And although voices have become vociferous for this legitimate right, the Indian society which is still largely patriarchal seems, to be in no mood to take  it seriously. But the largest democracy of the world continues to move on with this congenital deformity even if with a pathetic rank of  149^th  by the percentage of elected women representatives in national parliaments among a  list of 193 countries, trailing behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Afghanistan as per most current statistics. And it needs no reiteration that no household, society, state or country has ever moved forward without empowering its women and more women in parliament and assemblies have always contributed to the making of better, stronger and more representative democracies that work for all the people, a feature observed all over the world.

Thus, even if this increase is an welcome sign, it is far from anything substantial given the fact that women forms almost half the nation’s populace. Passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which proposes 33% reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures is the only solution. But it will be very difficult to fancy when will it be passed or passed at all.

Only time will tell whether the current healthy signs are a prelude to the larger aspirations of the women of Mother India.