The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international organisation of Parliaments, said in its annual analysis that more women than ever before are being elected to Parliaments around the world, with gender parity likely achievable in less than a generation if the current trend continues.
The IPU, which works closely with the United Nations, ranks countries on the number of women members in parliament.
India ranked 111th with 62 women parliamentarians sitting in its Lower House, a small 11.4 per cent of the total 545 MPs. The Upper house of 245 MPs has 28 women parliamentarians, a 11.4 per cent of the total.
"That doesn't sound like a lot, but if you consider that we are now at almost 22 per cent of women in parliaments, if we were to continue with this rate of increase of 1.5 it means that within a generation, actually within 20 years, we should be able to reach globally gender parity in Parliament," IPU Secretary-General Anders Johnsson said.
Also Read
"That is something we never imagined. Rwanda led the list of 189 countries surveyed, with its lower house recording more than 60 per cent women," Johnsson said.
"Quotas must be ambitious, detailed and be implemented to have impact," IPU said.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka lauded the "record-breaking" increase by the gains made by women in political life around the world and vowed that the organisation will keep fighting gender-based bias.
"The record-breaking increase of women in national parliaments in 2013 is encouraging, but we are still far from equality," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
"Around the world, women are excluded from parliaments by discrimination, violence, party structures, poverty and a lack of finance," she said.
As a region, Latin America recorded the highest electoral gain with women in Educador, Grenada and Argentina occupying more than 30 per cent in those three countries.
However, the US ranked 83rd and Canada was 54th. China recorded a two percentage point increase.
Nepal, with the highest percentage of women MPs in South Asia came in at just under 30 per cent.
Of the top 10 performing countries globally, four are on the African continent, which recorded a "very, very healthy increase," Johnsson noted.