Women in The Indian Parliament

Women constitute the backbone of the society and also represent the bulk of the population. The general development of the society is unconceivable unless and until the women march ahead in all walks of life alongwith men. The present volume on women covers a long period of about forty years from 1950 to 1989 i.e. upto the 9th Lok Sabha. An analytical and comparative approach has been adopted to discuss the different aspects of the study on women. The study has been divided into six chapters. The first Chapter traces the origin and growth of Indian women’s movement, and their ideology in late 19th century and early 20th Century. The second Chapter attempts to probe into the initiative and role of women in the vast field of legislation on a variety of subjects concerning women, children and other things in the post-Independence period. The third and fourth Chapters relate to the participation of women in the discussions of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on several social, economic and welfare issues. These Chapters also analyse the reasons for the low representation of women in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, their socio-economic background and their experience in politics and government. The fifth Chapter focuses on the implementation of the various measures for the uplift of women while the last chapter makes concluding remarks.

Dr. J.K. Chopra (b. 1935) got his Master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi University in 1956. Later on he passed his M.A. (Pol. Sc.) from the Meerut University in first division in 1981. He was awarded Ph.D. degree by the same University in 1985. He is authored the book politics of Electoral Reforms in India (Mittal Publications, 1989). He has also worked on some of the important Projects of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He was Research Fellow of ICSSR from 1990 to 1992. He is a distinguished member of the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi and also the member of Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. An enthusiastic researcher, he has attended a number of national and international seminars on domestic and foreign affairs.