Bihar's surge of female MLAs: progress or delusion?

Bihar may still be one of India’s most backward states, but when it comes to female political representation, it is among the country’s best.

The state of 104 million people has 34 female MLAs (next only to Uttar Pradesh’s 35), one of the highest in the history of female representation in India’s state assemblies and the highest-ever in the state’s history. By proportion, 14% of Bihar’s state assembly is female, second only to Haryana (14.4%), reveals an IndiaSpend and GenderinPolitics analysis of electoral data.

With elections just a couple of months away, all eyes are on the big political stage that is Bihar, which—as IndiaSpend had reported earlier—has improved under Nitish Kumar but remains one of India’s poorest states. Bihar has 28 million illiterate women, India’s lowest level of female literacy (53%) and employment, with the female labour-force participation rate 62 percentage points below the male rate.

In the calculus of caste, religion and party alignment, women voters—roughly half of Bihar’s electorate—continue to play a traditional, largely silent role on the political sidelines, despite their political advancement.

Women political representatives, whether MPs, MLAs or those in panchayats (village councils) and urban local bodies, are often spoken of as footnotes, often dismissed as proxies to powerful male relatives and colleagues. Yet, there is no question that their numbers have risen.

This story is the first of an occasional series that will focus on Bihar’s female MLAs through a data-driven analysis.

Bihar’s conflicted relationship with women in politics

It took half a century for Bihar to elect 34 female MLAs in the 2010 assembly election.

The electoral history of Bihar reveals conflicting trends in the political representation of women.

Bihar elected 11.4% female MLAs during the second vidhan sabha (lower house) in 1957, which is the second highest in history after the current assembly. Within 10 years after the second vidhan sabha, women’s representation fell to 1.9% and stayed below 5% for the next four decades.

 

Women MLAs In Bihar: 1951-2010
Year	Total Seats	Seats won by Women	Women MLAs in %
1951	276	13	4.7
1957	264	30	11.4
1962	318	25	7.9
1967	318	6	1.9
1969	318	4	1.3
1972	318	13	4.1
1977	324	13	4.0
1980	324	11	3.4
1985	324	15	4.6
1990	324	10	3.1
1995	324	11	3.4
2000	324	19	5.9
2005 (February)	243	3	1.2
2005 (October)	243	25	10.3
2010	243	34	14.0

Source: Election Commission of India

The year 2005 was a watershed year for women’s representation in Bihar. After a gap of 45 years, representation of women was 10% again, an increase of 31.5% (six seats) over the previous assembly of 2000.

In the second elections held that year (there were two elections in February and October 2005), and after the bifurcation of the state into Bihar and Jharkhand, women made up 10.3% of the state assembly.

Female political leadership is clearly on the rise

What accounts for the rise in women MLAs since the 2000 elections?

One clear factor is the increase in number of women contesting the elections. The second factor could be a rise in the number of constituencies they have been contesting.

In 1995, women contested from 52.5% of constituencies, which fell to 42% in 2000, rising marginally to 43% in 2005.

However, in 2010, women contested from 74% of constituencies.

 

Increasing Women’s Participation in Bihar
Year	Total Seats	Total women contestants	Number of Seats contested	% of seats contested
1957	264	46	43	16.3
1962	318	46	45	14.2
1967	318	29	26	8.2
1969	318	45	42	13.2
1977	324	96	85	26.2
1980	324	77	71	21.9
1985	324	324	85	26.2
1990	324	147	114	35.2
1995	324	263	170	52.5
2000	324	189	136	42
2005(1)	243	26	17	7
2005(2)	243	138	106	43.6
2010	243	307	182	74.9

Source: Election Commission of India

 

Does this mean that the rising number of women contestants has increased the number of women MLAs?

While the percentage of seats won against those contested rose from 14% in 2000 to 23% in 2005, it fell to 18.7% during the 2010 elections, the data show.

This could be due to a substantial spike in the number of seats that women contested from in the last elections.

Women Contestants in Bihar Assembly Elections: Win Rate
Year	Seats contested	Seats won	Win %
1957	43	30	69.8
1962	45	25	55.6
1967	26	6	23.1
1969	42	4	9.5
1977	85	13	15.3
1980	71	11	15.5
1985	85	15	17.6
1990	114	10	8.8
1995	170	11	6.5
2000	136	19	14
2005(1)	17	3	17.6
2005(2)	106	25	23.6
2010	182	34	18.7

Source: Election Commission of India

 

One of the main factors for the rise of women’s participation in Bihar, perhaps, could be the 50% reservation for women in panchayats.

Bihar was the first state to implement the reservation in 2006, which might have created an enabling environment for greater political participation.

Prior to that, women had 33% reservation in panchayats. Subsequently a few other states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka, have implemented the new rule.

The most-popular female MLAs and their strongholds

Over the last 59 years, 180 women have been elected to Bihar’s vidhan sabha: 52 women have been elected as MLAs more than once.

Uma Devi Pandey (INC), elected to represent Baniapur constituency, holds the distinction of having been elected an MLA most frequently; 11 women have been elected three times or more to the vidhan sabha.

Bihar’s Most-Popular Female MLAs
Name	Constituency	No of times	Years
Uma Devi Pandey	Baniapur	5	1957, 1962, 1967, 1980, 1985
Sudha Srivastava	Nathnagar	4	1977, 1990, 2000, 2005
Rajkumari Devi	Hisua	4	1957, 1962, 1980
Bhagwati Devi	Barachatti	4	1969, 1977, 1995, 2000
Gayatri Devi	Gobindpur	3	1980, 1985, 1990, 2000
Sushila Kerketta	Khunti ( now Jharkhand)	3	1985, 1990, 1995
Renu Devi	Bettiah	3	2000, 2005, 2010
Prabhawati Gupta	Kesariya, Motihari	3	1957, 1977, 1980
Guddi Devi	Runsaidpur	3	2005, 2010
Bima Bharati	Rupauli	3	2000, 2005, 2010
Bhagirathi Devi	Shikarpur, Ramnagar	3	2000, 2005, 2010

Source: Election Commission of India

 

(IndiaSpend is a data-driven, public interest journalism non-profit)