<b>Story in numbers:</b> Age and wisdom in Indian Parliament

Some facts about the age profile of MPs in the current Parliament are interesting. The current Lok Sabha is the second oldest house of independent India; the first was the previous Lok Sabha (15th).

The youngest MP in the current House is 28, and the oldest MP is 88. The median age of MPs is 58, that is half of the MPs are 58 years and above. In 2011, the median age of India was 24 years. MPs aged 56–70 years have the highest share of seats (44 per cent) in the current Lok Sabha, while the demographic accounts for only eight per cent of the total population.

Of India’s population eligible to be elected, a fourth are between 25 and 40 years old, but no more than 10 per cent of MPs are from this age-group. Elderly (71-100) MPs occupy 9.6 per cent of the seats, while their age group makes up 2.4 per cent of the population.

MPs between the ages of 41 and 55, on average, attended 81 per cent of the sessions in the 16th Lok Sabha, and marked the highest attendance. The oldest MPs scored the least, with 76.3 per cent.

Parliamentarians in the age group 41-55 were the most active in the Lok Sabha, with the highest average of questions, participation in debates and introduction of private member Bills. While an MP in the age group 41-55 asked 168 questions, an MP from the oldest age group asked only 91 questions.

The least active parliamentarians are between 71 and 88 years old (the oldest); 34 per cent of such MPs have asked less than 10 questions in the House. Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, 53, asked the most questions at 619.