Till 7th phase, women only 10% of all candidates in poll fray: Report

Four out of seven phases had single-digit female candidate participation

An election that began with an emphasis on female candidates is approaching its end with only around 700 women candidates in the first seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections-- they account for fewer than a tenth of the total number of candidates and are half the number of those with criminal records.  

The data is based on numbers collated by non-governmental organisations National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms. The joint report, released on Monday, looked at 7,928 out of the 8,049 candidates, both male and female, in the poll fray. Some were excluded because of unavailability of