India lags its neighbours and peers when it comes to women's representation in national legislatures

Nearly a century has passed since the first time an Indian woman voted to elect her representative in British India: it was in Madras in 1920. With universal adult suffrage in 1952 and granting 33 per cent reservation to women in rural local bodies in 1993, has come a long way over the last century.

However today, India lags its neighbours and peers when it comes to women’s representation in national legislatures, an analysis of global data shows. Proportion of elected women representatives in the Indian Lok Sabha touched its peak at nearly 12 per cent in 2014.