women councillors outnumber men in the delhi municipality.
this example is hard to find anywhere in the country’s politics, or even in other nations. though there were 138 reserved seats (50 per cent) for women in the 272-member house of the municipal corporation of delhi, now trifurcated into three different municipal corporations (east, south and north zones), six more women also won from open constituencies (non-reserved), taking the final tally to 144 women councillors.
women are also in majority in each of the three new municipalities. there are 35 women councillors in east delhi municipal corporation of the total 64 seats. In north corporation, 53 of the 104 councillors are women, and in south, 56 of the total 104 councillors are women. as if these were not enough, each of the three corporations will have a woman mayor in the first year.
for delhi, a city not noted for its commitment to women’s rights and where the sex ratio is 866 girls per 1,000 boys as per the 2011 census, it is indeed a big achievement.
india itself has only 60 women parliamentarians in its 543-member lower house (lok Sabha), and another 24 in the 250-member rajya sabha. the aggregate percentage of women in parliament is a little over 10 per cent.
the election results of the newly created three municipal agencies in delhi were announced earlier this month.
special thanks to sandeep yadav of deccan herald
